


Dive|rgence

by SugarFeather



Series: From The Sea [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Angst and Feels, Attempt at Humor, Dancing, Everyone Has Issues, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hugs, LGBTQ Characters, M/M, Mental Anguish, Mental Breakdown, Multi, Non-Sexual Intimacy, OC is Introspective, Portgas D. Ace Lives, Usopp is a Drama Queen, no beta we die like (wo)men, oc-insert, weird nicknames
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-13 19:28:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 74,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28533699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SugarFeather/pseuds/SugarFeather
Summary: A young, dreamless girl (her soul already old and weary, her fire never set alight and forgotten in a corner of her washed-out heart) closes her eyes in the Mediterranean Sea and opens them in the middle of East Blue.…Fucking hell, Granny mixed up her Christmas List with her sister’s. Again. She needs the Transmigration Agency’s number.… What do you mean it doesn’t exist?!
Relationships: Monkey D. Luffy & Original Female Character(s), Mugiwara Kaizoku | Strawhat Pirates & Original Female Character(s), Nami & Original Female Character(s), Original Female Character(s) & The Sea, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Portgas D. Ace & Original Female Character(s), Roronoa Zoro & Original Female Character(s)
Series: From The Sea [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2090241
Comments: 54
Kudos: 96





	1. PROLOGUE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Girl opens her eyes, thinks 'what the fuck', and closes them again, wishing she never opened them in the first place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh… Hullo? 
> 
> …
> 
> Yeah, okay, now that we all know that I suck at introductions, let’s move on from the awkward part. From the summary you already vaguely know what this is about, so I won’t repeat myself.  
> But I’m going to warn you now. I want to try and explore the psychological consequences that come with being dumped into a world that you always thought of as fictional. So obviously, angst will be a big thing (also because I can’t seem to write anything without putting angst in it, so even if I love some fanfics on the same trope that treat it entirely as a joke, I just cannot write something like that).
> 
> There will also be a lot of fluffy friendship feelings and hugs, though -I don’t think my sanity can take 100% angst. Plus I love happy feels. And there will also be humour (at least I think it counts as such, but we don’t all have the same sense of humour so maybe you won’t like it). But for the first few chapters especially, angst will be more heavy.
> 
> Updating schedule: I can’t really give you anything precise, because I don’t want to put myself under pressure to write when I’m not always in the mood, or give you false hopes and disappoint you in the end. Classes will start again in two weeks for me, and last semester I was working like 10 hours a day, which admittedly doesn’t leave that much time for writing since I have other things to do (like, you know, eating and sleeping and watching the last episode of One Piece and reading other fanfictions).  
> So yeah. It’ll come when it’ll come. Just so you know, though, I have like five other chapters that just need editing -since I know that my muse isn’t really a regular visitor. So I can at least guarantee you that the next update won’t be in a year.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, so anything that you see in this fic and that you can recognise as belonging to One Piece is not mine. If I did own it, I wouldn’t have to write fanfiction. Duh.
> 
> Anyway. Unnecessarily long rant (again) aside, here is the prologue.

**From The Sea - Dive|rgence**

  
  


**PROLOGUE**

  
  


_I was having a dream but_

_then I realised that_

_I can’t wake up_

_and_

_it is a nightmare_

  
  


**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

  
  


With a deep breath of slightly salty air, she lets her consciousness resurface and wakefulness wash over her, like the waves she can hear crashing lazily on the sand, not too far away.

She shuffles, feet digging clumsily into the sun-heated sand.

“Good nap?”

The voice of her mother is the last nudge her groggy mind needs, and with a sleepy, vaguely affirmative hum, she raises her head from where it rests on her crossed arms.

… And promptly groans in discomfort as her eyes are assaulted by the harsh light of the sun, still high in the sky -her sudden nap was probably shorter than she first thought.

Slowly, she sits up, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hands once she has checked they are free of sand.

_Now_ that _would be a pain in the neck._

_Ah, better._

“Want to go for a swim?”

She rolls her shoulders and cracks her neck to rouse her body from its nap-induced stiffness, tongue roaming through her mouth in an attempt to relieve it of its dryness and fuzziness. She loves the beach, but taking a nap on the beach in the middle of a summer day… Well, there are enough downsides to make her think twice about doing it again.

An affirmative answer is on her lips ( _she_ is _pretty sweaty_ ) before she stops. Her half-functioning brain finally realises that the humming noise in her ears isn’t just the ocean.

It’s people.

As in, A Lot of People.

Way more than there was when she fell asleep.

_Ugh_.

She stares at the clusters of people playing, talking and swimming in the sea.

A gaggle of children run by her with their swimming ring, laughing and screaming and squealing as they race each other towards the foam-capped waves.

She winces.

Hesitantly, she gestures towards a pile of rocks and boulders that she knows hide a small creek.

“I’ll just… go over there.”

She rises to her feet hurriedly, but even with her back turned she can _feel_ her mother rolling her eyes heavenwards ( _okay, the exasperated sigh is kind of a hint, too_ ).

Annnnnd there goes her good mood.

She sighs as she heads for the rocks. This summer is the last occasion to spend time with her family before she moves out for her first year of college ( _enough time to forget what is to come, to relax fully without that little part of herself already thinking about leaving and unknown and lost and not alone but so, so lonely-_ ). And after spending all summer with them, she wants to avoid being a source of conflict and disappointment when she won’t see them for a long time ( _not really_ ).

_She should have just said yes and sucked it up._

But even as the thought burns bitterly in her mind and guilt churns in her gut, her shoulders slacken in relief, tension melting at the sight of her temporary swimming spot. Two other people chose to come there too, but they are far away enough that she can barely distinguish their features.

She hurries her steps, suddenly giddy to be in the sea again and feel the water glide along her skin like liquid silk.

As she jumps down from the last rock, she spots an obviously abandoned plastic bag, filled with empty food wrappings.

The thought filters through her mind that she should probably pick it up and throw it away properly, stringing along memories of classes she attended, TV programs she watched and books she read.

Vague, washed-out disgust courses through her at the thought of whoever took the time to collect all their trash but not to actually put it in the damn bin.

And then it all sunks in the whirlpool of apathetic emptiness within her, and she walks past the pile of trash ( _distantly acknowledging that_ ~~_she isn’t any better_~~ ). 

She enters the water in a few steps, and dives in almost silently, a sigh escaping her mouth. She swims around for a bit, before turning on her back and letting herself float.

Green seaweed passes her by and gets tangled in her left hand. She closes her thumb on it, feeling its thin, wet softness with small, slow strokes.

Water laps at her ears, loud and tranquil, drowning most background noise until she is alone at sea. 

( _It is soothing, terrifying and exhilarating all at once._ )

Her long hair is like an anchor pulling her down, heavy with the weight of the sea. She has to wash it anyway, so she decided there is no harm in letting it soak in salty water on top of it.

She takes a deep breath and, one by one, lets her muscles relax slowly, until she is sinking, the water closing above her face, blurring her sight of the sun.

She waves her limbs lazily to keep herself afloat not too far from the surface, and watches the bubbles she releases little by little fly upwards.

The rest of the world disappears.

She closes her eyes, lips tilted up in quiet contentment.

And then... 

Something hits her smack dab in the forehead.

Her eyes snap open, and she gasps out a mouthful of air in surprise, instinctively hurling herself up.

She breaks through the surface ( _-it took too long, what-_ ) and greedily sucks in air, impatiently pushing hair out of her face as she looks down.

Her eyes were crying against the sting of sea water, but she is pretty sure she was just hit by some _one_. It did feel like another skull smashing against hers just now, too -not that she has a lot of experience with that particular occurrence.

Except, no one is resurfacing next to her.

With a curse, she fills her mouth with air again, and dives.

Luckily, or as much as one can be in these cirumstances, she manages to spot them quickly, and hurriedly swims over to what she discovers is a barely moving boy of about her age.

She grabs a hold of him (- _too light, he’s too light for his build, this doesn’t make sense-_ ) and proceeds to haul the both of them upwards again.

Except, when she does reach the surface, she realises four things at once.

One, she is in the middle of the ocean, with no sign of land in any direction. 

(- _but it isn’t_ possible-)

Two, there is a small rowing boat not far from them, something that by all accounts belongs in a museum.

Three, the boy she is holding looks **familiar** ( _the kind of familiar that turns her stomach and spine to hard, cold ice, that numbs everything in shades of incredulity and disbelief because_ it shouldn’t exist-).

And four, **he isn’t breathing**.

A mangled whimper crawls up her throat and dies on her lips. 

Her breath stutters. 

Her movements falter.

And then her mind goes blank with lucid terror, only focused on hearing the sound of breathing again (- _even though she_ shouldn’t _hear it, she_ knows-).

As she drags the limp body on the boat and clambers in herself, her panicked mind runs blindly through the memories of her first-aid optional course in first year of high school. 

( _In her mind it feels like three years ago. In her body, it feels like three eternities, limbs unable to remember the position they took, the speed they used, the strength they applied-_ )

Hands trembling, tongue licking salty drops off her lips again and again ( _if they are tears or sea water, she does not know_ ), she gets into position and starts pumping, counting under her breath.

The only thought that goes through her as she leans forward is, absurdly enough, something along the lines of _seriously, when I said I missed having someone to kiss, this was so_ not _what I had in mind_. But she opens her mouth anyway, covers his lips with her own, and exhales. 

( _and there is no response, no movement, no warmth, no_ nothing _, and it is so_ wrong _, even though he is-_ )

Pump. Exhale. Repeat.

Once. Twice. Three times.

A choked sob, wrapped in the broken shards of a senseless litany she cannot even hear, squeezes past her throat -her throat that is clogged with unshed tears and silent despair.

She feels his body contract before he actually coughs, and flings herself back, almost falling into the ocean again.

As the boy (- _she can’t bring herself to think his name, let alone_ say _it_ -) proceeds to cough out the water, and probably his lungs too, her heartbeat slows down from ‘argh, too many feelings in here, let’s just run away’ to ‘I think I’m gonna be allergic to consciousness in about two minutes’. She finally focuses on her surroundings.

But they are just as she first saw them through the haze of panic and the water in her eyes. Just as she fears.

She and… the other occupant of the boat are the only people as far as she can see, floating aimlessly on the molten glass mirror of the sea, under the barely lighter blue of the similarly boundless sky.

Being lost at sea with no idea how to get back home -or how you got there in the first place- is neither soothing nor exhilarating. 

It’s just plain _terrifying_. 

She looks down helplessly- 

and lurches forward to grip the railing of the boat with a gasp. It sounds like a whimper of desperate denial being strangled by her throat but somehow wrenching itself forcefully out of her mouth.

Because there, on the surface of the sea, undisturbed by the wind or the movement of the boat, is what is supposed to be her reflection. 

Except it isn’t.

_Cannot be_.

But when she moves her arm to bring it in her field of vision, _it_ moves too, and so she finds herself staring uncomprehendingly at the pearly, nearly translucent, the-sun-what’s-that-never-heard-of-it white of her skin. 

( _Her heartbeat drowns out the world in a way that makes her want to silence it forever._ ) 

She inherited her skin from her mother’s side, and it has never been that pale, even when she’s sick, and certainly _not_ in the middle of summer when she tans so easily.

She rubs another foreign-looking hand on the arm (- _not_ her _arm, it just cannot_ _be hers_ -), and _feels_ the contact.

Almost unconsciously, she clamps down viciously, nails digging frantically into the skin.

_Ow._

… _Fuck_.

Absently, she reaches for a strand of hair, faintly hoping in the back of her rapidly numbing mind (- _she wonders if this is what going into shock feels like_ -) that it was just the colour or the sky reflected in the sea that-

Nope.

Her usual straight strands of thin, luxurious, chocolate-brown hair -the one feature of her face she has always loved, have become thick, straggly curls, coloured an absurd ocean blue that should _not,_ under any circumstance, be natural. 

Except it seems to be the case.

And when she gives a tug she _feels_ it, so it can only be hers (- _but it doesn’t make_ sense _, cannot make sense_ -). 

She gives a harsher tug just in case.

( _It hurts, but not as much as the jolt of realisation somewhere around her heart that sends cracks rippling through her sense of self._ )

She wants to cry hysterically, but the only sound that comes out of her mouth is a breath of laughter ( ~~ _although it is definitely hysterical_~~ ).

A loud, hoarse cry of relief makes her tense as she is abruptly reminded that she isn’t alone on the boat.

( _Or is she?_

_Is this all a dream? An illusion born from her -in that case more disturbed than she thought- imagination?_

_..._

_She doesn’t know which would be worse._ )

Slowly, mechanically, she turns towards _the boy_ , who throws his arms in the air, in victory or celebration she doesn’t know -but if it is the former it is severely misplaced.

“I’m alive!”

She blinks sluggishly.

_The boy_ blinks back, and suddenly beams like the sun on the first day of summer holidays, when it just so happens to also be your birthday. 

Amazingly enough, she manages to resist the urge to cover her eyes from what would probably be a serious case of megawatt smile-induced blindness.

And then he opens his mouth, wider and wider and wider, like a black hole that sucks in all her hopes. And she wants, yearns, _needs_ -so badly, to look away, ignore him a little longer, tell herself this isn’t true, isn't happening - _just a little longer_. 

( _Even if, just under the surface,_ _she already_ knows.)

But she can’t look away, like you can never look away from something horryfingly fascinating, whether it is the meeting of two people that would either make the world go sunshine and candies or _kaboom_ , or a ball careening towards you through the air that you know is going to land straight in your face, and the only thing you can think is _ohhell,_ except in this case her brain seems stuck on _nonononono_ \- 

And then he _talks_.

“Aaaaah, that was close! Thanks for saving me!”

She…

Faints.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So… as you can probably tell, this is going to be a LONG fic. Not just because I start at the very beginning of the series, but also because this is a prologue, so a lot shorter than the following chapters, which gives you an idea of their average length considering that this is already 2,000 words long.  
> I’m sorry if the writing is a bit confusing, but it’s 80% on purpose because well, she’s in shock, and her brain is kind of scrambling with the abrupt change of scenery, which I think is quite legitimate. The remaining 20% can be blamed on my tendency to make really long sentences and go on tangents in the middle of long sentences.  
> On another note, Ocean blue (RAL 5020) is actually a lot darker (and has more green) than I thought. And somehow, I always felt like Luffy’s rubber body would be a lot lighter than a normal human body. I might be totally wrong though.  
> Also, I never understood some SI-OC insert fics where the character is like ‘oh my god this is so weird i could swear that i know this person/place/chicken from somewhere, but i really can’t tell that IT’S THE MAIN CHARACTER FROM MY FAVOURITE ANIME OF ALL TIME! YOU KNOW, THE ONE I’VE WATCHED SEVEN TIMES IN THE LAST THREE MONTHS’. Like, are you for real? (The chicken is just me getting carried away btw. If there’s a fic like that, I never read it.)
> 
> Thank you for reading!


	2. ONE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which both Luffy and The Girl are both selfish, and so decide to stick with the other for selfish reasons.
> 
> Also, feelings.
> 
> (Angsty feelings. Oops.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who read the prologue and decided that it was worth going on to the first chapter, thank you.  
> As you can see, I decided to the first chapter immediately, since I think it can be a bit hard to really get the mood of the story/character just with the prologue.
> 
> Also, I forgot to put it in the prologue, but obviously, feel free to drop a comment to tell me what you think, even if just to say ‘you forgot a ‘h’ at line 349’ or ‘this is the best stuff since I read Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest’ (I know) or ‘fck this shit i’m out, u should just go hang urself’ (in which case, I hope you don’t really mean it, and I would honestly like to know why you’re wasting both of our time with this).  
> Equally valid if you want to complain about how teachers have clearly forgotten what it’s like to be a student (mine are mostly adorable, but I’m always up for complaining), or if you want to rave about the best cheesecake you’ve ever tasted.  
> I’ll try my best to answer, and I will definitely read everything.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, so anything that you see in this fic and that you can recognise as belonging to One Piece is not mine. If I did own it, I wouldn’t have to write fanfiction. Duh.

**From The Sea - Dive|rgence**

  
  


**ONE**

  
  


_You’re holding out your hand_

_and to take it I have_

_no choice_

_but to let go_

  
  


**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

  
  


As a Devil Fruit user and a ( _wannabe_ ) pirate, what’s more, a ( _wannabe_ ) _King_ of Pirates, Monkey D. Luffy has a rather peculiar although not unique relationship with the sea. It is both the one thing he will never be able to win against, no matter how strong he will get, and the one thing that embodies absolute, boundless freedom, and with it the infinite potential for excitement. 

( _Endless blue that seems to connect with the sky, so deep some speculate that most of it is actually shrouded in darkness, so wide it should be impossible to learn every inch of it in the span of one life-_

_the only treasure chest that can match his sheer, unsatiable_ hunger _for adventure._ )

And although he has only been sailing for a few hours after finally leaving his home village, it seems he has already crossed paths with his first mystery of the sea.

Tilting his hat back to glance at the one he dubbed Sea Girl in his mind, he notices with a sigh that she is still out cold, curled up in the middle of the boat between him and his provisions. 

He frowns, not really knowing what he should do -or think- with her.

He was trying to catch the huge fish he saw swim by his boat when a sudden wave sent him tumbling out of his boat and right into the water.

And as his muscles suddenly stopped responding to his will, horrifyingly slack and sickeningly heavy, as salty water flowed into his mouth and roared triumphantly in his ears, he wanted to laugh sheepishly at his idiocy ( _because really, how much more dumb can dying get? Sabo will probably beat him to a pulp, and then do it again for Ace and Gramps_ ). 

He wanted to _scream_ , too, because he didn’t truly live, didn’t truly see, didn’t truly _do_ anything yet ( _and he needs more_ time, _can’t just -can’t just_ die _, not like this, not_ now-)

She arrived out of nowhere, and through his half-closed eyes and blurry vision, she made his heart pound in instinctive, startled fear. With her sea-coloured hair, her pale, white face looked like that of a ghost, floating amidst drifting seaweed.

And when he regained his senses enough to notice something else than the burning pressure in his chest, and how raw his throat felt after being scrapped thoroughly by salt -on the way in _and_ on the way out, he noticed that there was no other boat around, nothing that could carry another human being. 

A glance was enough to spot the Sea Girl kneeling beside the rail of the boat, her whole body leaning over it as if she wanted to slip into the water again ( _shoulders sagging inwards and fists clenched white, looking like Ace did when the news of Sabo’s death ripped half his world away_ ). 

A glance was enough to prove to himself that she wasn’t a ghost or a mirage of his weakened mind. 

But that meant that she could only come from the sea ( _from this endless treasure chest of mysteries, from which he can take_ -steal- _all his life, take and takeandtake-_ ).

The realisation was like finally tasting a dish you eyed the whole day knowing it would be good. A wave of satisfaction with an aftertaste of amazement.

_She was his first mystery, the one that foreshadowed all those to come._

But then he called out to her. And she turned to him.

(- _and the blood drained from her white face, shading it in despair grey,_

_and her eyes, that he saw for the first time were blue like the fathomless black empty dark abyss of the sea, widened and widened and widened, until they looked like a whirlpool about to devour her entire face into the bottomless pits,_

_and the sound of her breathing stopped like that of so many, unlucky sailors did before her in the embrace of the grand, formless entity they sailed_

_and she stared at him like the weaker preys he hunted in the forest back home, with the sickening, heartwrenching realisation that something hostile, something_ final _was upon her, and she was unablehelplesspowerless to stop it_ -)

And she looked _terrified_.

Of him.

Monkey D. Luffy is someone who can be amused at how spooked people are upon witnessing his abilities for the first time, someone who can even take satisfaction in knowing that people he doesn’t respect or like fear him, because that means that they will think twice before trying to hurt or take what is _his_ ( ~~ _never again_~~ ). 

He is _not_ someone who likes to use terror to gain power over other people, let alone someone who enjoys causing terror to twist his saviour’s face.

He doesn’t even know what prompted this terror in the first place, but judging from the Sea Girl’s sudden change in breathing pattern, he is about to get answers.

Sitting up suddenly, he leans forward until his face is inches from hers.

“Ah! You’re awake! Geez, do you know how long I’ve been waiting?!”

For a few seconds the Sea Girl keeps her eyes closed, as if she’s trying to pretend that he isn’t talking to her ( _which is dumb, who else would he be talking to?_ ), so he pokes her plump cheek impatiently with his finger, and then digs harder when she frowns but stays still. 

A sigh rushes from her mouth, and she finally, finally opens her eyes, letting him drink greedily in the full features of his saviour as the ocean’s abyss stares back from her eyes. ( _Her eyes that glide over him, like he is two-dimensional, has no substance whatsoever._ )

There’s nothing sharp about the Sea Girl, nothing but curves and round and softness, from the waves of her hair to the vague features of her round face ( _as if she isn’t quite finished, isn’t quite_ there).

Except maybe for the straight, neutral line of her mouth and the flatness in her eyes.

His scrutiny is interrupted when she raises her hand through the air, slowly, like the waves that come and go lazily on a windless day. He can stop her, but he doesn’t, curious to see what she will do.

Her fingers find his cheek, dig, and _tug_.

His stare becomes bewildered as he watches her watch his distended skin, eyes fixated with dull resignation ( _but not_ surprised _, she already knows, how does she-_ ), bitterness clinging to the echo of a scowl on the edges of her lips.

Luffy doesn’t know if he wants to laugh or frown. 

“Oisch! Wha’ ar’ yew doin’?!”

Her fingers tug a little harder, like she wants to stop him from talking any more, and slowly ( _she seems to do everything slowly, like someone only half-awake_ ) her eyes meet his.

“Just checking I wasn’t dreaming.”

Her words are gone with the wind as soon as they leave her mouth, soft like a whisper yet heavy like the rocks that taint the ocean a shade darker ( _like a half-spoken secret weighing her downdowndown_ ).

Then, not unlike a boat hitting a hidden obstacle, she lets go of his cheek, body growing stiff and mouth closing into a mild, pleasant smile.

“Please excuse me. My surprise got the better of me, but I should have asked for your permission.”

Now Luffy is definitely frowning. 

This, this is the smile he has seen adults offer each other when they meet someone they don’t really know, back home. It’s too close to the smile on someone’s face in Grey Terminal when they’re about to screw you over ( _looks too close to the smile on the face of Sabo’s father when he came to stealbreakcut, to take him away, never to be seen again)_. 

“Stop smiling like that. It’s annoying.”

_It_ slips off her face, quiet like an afterthought, and she stares at him silently.

“Why?”

He rolls his eyes.

“If you don’t want to say or do something, don’t do it. It’s stupid.”

“Humans are stupid.” 

The words flow out of her mouth like water down a river, the easy acknowledgement of a universal truth. _Seawater is salty. Monkey D. Luffy will be the King of Pirates. Humans are stupid._

She stares at him some more, as if inspecting a specimen she knows exists but that she never met before. 

“So you want me to stop being polite with you?”

“Did you listen to me? What I want you to do doesn’t matter. I’m just telling you you’re being annoying, I don’t care what you decide to do.”

“But if I want to insult you, you’d rather I do that than smile and keep my mouth shut.”

“Sure.” He shrugs, half-bored with the conversation already. He expected better things from his saviour, and at this point he just wants to thank her and be done with it. With her.

( _-because if his first mystery is going to be so lame, then he refuses to accept her as such, refuses to let her ruin his adventure_ -)

“Give me written proof that I can shove in your face if you ever get upset with me for insulting you, and I’ll do it.”

Luffy blinks, and his entire face scrunches into a childish frown, but laughter floats up his throat like bubbles of light.

“ _Write?_ But I don’t wanna-”

“Give me written proof, or I won’t stop smiling.”

The infuriating _thing_ she calls a smile is back on her face, and he wants to punch it off, but her voice has become more forceful (- _like the current that drags you away from the coast, away from home and towards the unknown, the excitement, the danger-_ ), and for the first time since she woke up she sounds actually _there_ , and her half-joke half-threat reminds him of how Ace blackmails him into doing things ( _Sabo always was_ ~~_not really_ ~~ _the nicer big brother of the two_ ).

So instead he throws his head back and laughs.

“You’re so weird!”

And he sticks his hand towards her.

“I’m Luffy, and I’m gonna become the King of Pirates! What’s your name?” 

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

When she wakes up, she doesn’t open her eyes.

First, because she usually doesn’t, preferring to wake up fully before doing so.

Second, because whatever she’s lying on is certainly _not_ her bed, or any other bed for that matter.

Third, because soon, the memories, mashed together into a Picasso-worthy picture beforehand, are thrown back into her face. Rafael Nadal style.

And so, she keeps her eyes closed in a last, futile attempt to delay her confrontation with reality. (- _Because after all, she’s so cowardly, so unworthy of being transmigrated into a shōnen manga world-_ )

_… Did I just do CPR on Monkey D. Luffy?_

Her lips falter into a faint, involuntary smile. Her hands shake.

The thought is so -so utterly _absurd_ , it doesn’t even _sound_ real. 

( _pleasepleaseplease let it be-_ )

But Monkey D. Luffy shares some common points with many other main characters of shōnen manga. One of them being that for all of the dumb stuff that comes out of his mouth and dumber ideas that fly around in his brain, he has maturity. 

(- _the kind of maturity born from the fire his brittle blade of a mind was plunged into, from the blood spilt and shed that made him weaker then but stronger now, from the darkness that tries to smother the light inside of him and fails_ -)

She does not need to have read or watched One Piece to know this. The glimpses and comments she caught are enough. 

But even with this maturity, and that’s another common point, he is also so very childish ( _-perhaps_ , she thinks sometimes, _like only people who haven’t had enough time to be children can be_ -). Bold and brazen like only children can be, and cruelly demanding like only children can be. And so, he refuses to let her escape the conversation, refuses to let her escape the reality. 

(- _the immense, bottomless weight of a world of questions and fears and unknowns that she just stuffed in the back of her mind, and she keeps pushingpushingpushing on the doors but they keep_ _shaking, rattling,_ howling, _so loud that she can_ feel _the sobs running along the cracks of her shoulders, and the cracks are getting_ wider-)

Instead, he keeps poking and pushing until she relents, opens her eyes, _looks_ at him.

Him being the first thing that she sees makes him her only certainty in an uknown sea and a sea of unknown. 

( _She isn’t sure she likes it._

_She usually prefers to know things, prefers comfortable certainty, but between not knowing anything and knowing that she has somehow found herself into the world of One Piece, a fictional world, a world that isn’t supposed to be_ real- 

_ignorance is bliss seems like a correct feeling on the issue_.)

Monkey D. Luffy, with his long, wiry limbs, with that abnormally wide smile that somehow looks absolutely natural on his face, that smile that shows off all his teeth and screws up all his face, as if he wants to show the whole world the fire that burns inside him ( _how_ big _it is, how happy he has decided he is and fuck anyone who will try to change his mind_ ), looks like he was born to eat the Gomu Gomu no Mi. 

(- _she pushes back, clamping the door shut on the thought, because it’s too close to thinking about God, and thinking about the God of this world is a big nono, just makes the cracks wider, forcing her to twist her mouth around the_ things _ramming against it_ -)

His big, brown eyes (- _she would say like chocolate if she was a poet, but she really isn’t, and she has glimpsed enough of him on the screen to know that he would prefer an analogy with some kind of meat_ -) are talking and laughing even when no words pass his splitting mouth and _shit, he’s never going to shut up, even worse than her sister, how is that even_ possible-

His tan skin glints bronze under the sun, and white fingers (hers but not really _hers_ ) latch onto it before her brain even processes the thought, the _hope_ that-

Nope. He is, _feels_ real, rubbery skin rough but pliant under the fingers (because they can’t be _hers_ ).

… Apparently, he’s also part of these characters who do not like or even see the point in basic etiquette.

( _The thought of what it might be like alone is enough to make her tired, something heavy sitting under her skull, pulsing behind her eyelids, weighing over her shoulders, dragging her down_ _down_ down _by the blunt edge of its teeth_.)

But he looks bored, and because he seems to be that kind of person, the kind who freely, unashamedly, unreservedly let themselves _feel_ , and act on those feelings, she sighs inside. 

( _-air leaving her lungs, leaving the hole sinking in her chest to be filled with all the tears and tremors that have been running along the cracks, all the why’s and how’s and I want to go_ home _’s,_ **_please-_** _)_

She sighs and lets out a bit of the acid that always, always churns in the back of her thoat while she gnashes her teeth and flexes her jaw and _keeps her mouth shut_ because _wait, that’s not polite, that’s not nice_ and _fucking hell, they’re gonna cry, or get angry, can’t recognise a goddamn joke when it bites them in the-_

( _Just a little bit, though. She just wants to avoid being thrown back into the water because she’s not entertaining, after all. He isn’t a friend, shouldn’t even be_ alive-)

Fortunately, this bumps up her status from annoying to interesting instead of mean -it was kind of a bet- in the Monkey D. Luffy Scale of People Assessment. There isn’t much to see between the ‘I like you hey join my crew’ and the ‘I don’t like you Gomu Gomu no [insert more or less nonsensical term here]’... apart from maybe the ‘who are you oh wait I don’t care’ level.

The real-but-not- _real_ boy leans back out of her personal space, face splitting back into its default position, a.k.a. the crazy smile that positively screams _I do what I want and I don’t care what the world has to say about it_.

“I’m Luffy, and I’m gonna become the King of Pirates! What’s your name?”

Gingerly, carefully, she sits up, taking the time to think about the question. For the first time the answer doesn’t come to her, doesn’t come _out_ of her with the certainty of a fact, as if changing world (- _she slams back down on the pressure rising in her throat because fuck, not_ now _, not yet, she can’t break just yet_ -) has tilted _her_ world entirely off its axis.

Gazing down in thought, she abruptly realises that one, she’s still wearing the jungle green, two-piece swimsuit that she was wearing when she... closed her eyes, and two, that although her main physical features have changed, this body is still like _hers_ , and she has never been more happy to see the thick limbs and ample curves and plump body, to _feel_ the flesh - _her_ flesh- shifting over her bones as she moves because _hell, adapting to a completely new body would be a total bitch_ ~~ _and she would lose it, lose her self, lose herself_~~ -

She blinks the haze away, focusing on the hand offered to her.

The hand that will tear her out of the last, fragile layer of brittle denial that forms her tentative armour when faced with what she cannot, does not want to believe. 

( _Well, she has never been very good at optimism and self-deception. It’s just that she also sucks at acting upon her realisations._ )

The hand of the only person to be here, with her, for miles around, on this rippling, rolling mirror of changing shades, and she can’t- _she can’t do this alone_.

Her palm slides against his rough, barely smaller one, long and slightly chubby fingers settling around his hand firmly. 

(- _their first mutual contact and the last time she allows herself to think that she will slip through him like the illusion he’s supposed to be, because she can’t keep hoping, has never been any good at it, so now she will just have to suck it up and deal with it, otherwise she will-_ )

“Name’s Elynna.”

Her second name will take some time to get used to, but since she’s had to use it for just about every administrative process in her life so far, she certainly isn’t unfamiliar with it. 

Besides, using a name that isn’t quite hers in a world that isn’t quite hers and a body that isn’t quite hers feels less viscerally wrong than using her real name, no matter how chillingly real this all is.

Passively, she glides over the ghostly stream of an already fading thought pondering whether dissociating her life ( ~~herself~~ ) like this will be for the best or the worst -if she ever makes it back home. As it stands, both names come with pros and cons, so she dimisses the concern. 

(- _throws it back into the churning whirlpool waiting to submerge her from the pit of her sunken heart, because she has long ago resigned to the fact that even if she knows that fretting over something will serve no purpose, it will never prevent her from fraying herself thin over it_ -)

A black leather rucksack appears in front of her eyes, dangling in the bo- Luffy’s grip.

_Her_ black leather rucksack.

That she definitely did _not_ take with her to go swimming.

“It was floating not far away. Is it yours?”

“... Yes. Thank you.”

She reaches out, half-expecting her hand to pass through what _has_ to be an illusion. It doesn’t.

The bag contains little: what is necessary to write, which she always makes sure to have on her without any special reason, some of her sport accessories, her phone and a portable battery in the plastic bag she wrapped them in before leaving for the beach. There’s no clothes or a towel she could use, and most of her phone’s functions will probably be inaccessible, but at this point, it’s the least of her problems.

“How did you end up here anyway? There’s no boat around.” Her travelling companion asks suddenly, shading his eyes from the sun with one hand as he surveys the ocean, as if checking once again that there’s no other boat.

She stills. 

Takes a deep breath. 

Clenches her teeth, tenses her whole body. 

When she exhales, the tidal wave that has been swelling inside her settles with her breathing.

“Ah… Well- I went swimming alone, and I- got lost?”

His head tilts abruptly on the side as he stares at her, definitely puzzled.

“There’s no island around here, though?”

“... I’m a good swimmer.” The answer is nonchalant, but the shift of her eyes is uneasy, and when she shrugs it’s stilted rather than smooth.

None of this is an outright lie. She tries not to lie when she can help it, after all. Her parents’ education makes her feel guilty whenever she does it. Besides, the more lies she will tell, the more tiring it will be to keep up with them. Considering her situation, she will probably have to tell at least a few, so it would be best to limit herself.

Luffy’s roaring laughter interrupts her thoughts, and she looks back at him, rolling around in the boat that is now rocking uncomfortably. Her gaze is unimpressed, but the spots of heat on her cheeks and nose betray her mild embarassment. She isn’t the best with directions, after all, and her brooding character has led her into a few embarassing situations already.

“I’m glad at least _someone_ finds it funny.”

“But- But that’s just- so dumb!” He sputters between bouts of laughter.

Bringing her legs to her chest and circling them with her arms, she observes him pensively, chin settled between both knees. His laugh isn’t pretty. Some would probably even comment that it sounded rather dumb. It’s loud, strange, and he’s clearly laughing _at_ her. It’s… charismatic, though. Maybe because he doesn’t care about what she, or anyone else, thinks of him laughing. But what really sets him apart is that it is infectious, powerful in a way few people’s are, because he makes _her_ want to stop caring too. Somehow, even in the situation she’s in, she feels the corners of her lips twitch and the pressure in her constricted throat subside, until it settles at a more manageable level below her collarbones. 

( _She doesn’t like it -how her emotions are reacting to his. It makes her feel off-balance, clumsy, as her body stirs in concert with them. The urge to let go is there, foreign but_ hers _somehow._

_She rationalises it_ _into obedience_ -fuck ridiculous shōnen main characters and their ridiculous charisma _, puts it away with all the other_ things _chained inside her mind, waiting for the day her will breaks or she does not have anything more urgent to do and chooses to stop and drown -whichever comes first._ )

“Did you grow up in a forest or something?” 

The laughing devolves into hacking and coughing as the rubber boy sits up suddenly, looking absolutely bewildered. She vaguely considers laughing at him as a small revenge, before deciding that finding herself in an entirely different world certainly is not going to make her comfortable enough with strangers for that.

“How did you know?! Wait, are you reading my mind?!” 

Upon voicing the idea, he starts crambling backwards as if it would change anything in the case he’s right.

_What is there to read I wonder?_

“It was just a guess, though?” She tilts her head on the side, gaze turning into an intent stare. “You really did?”

“Yeah!” He straightens his hat and his position with a wide and bright smile, as if the simple mention of his home place is the equivalent of ten shots of liquid happiness ( _she knows it probably isn’t the only thing, but she also knows he’s probably the type to always move forward and turn any pain into strength -unlike her_ ). “How did you know?”

“For all intents and purposes, I’m still a child. People would be more likely to worry about me being separated from my parents than to laugh at the fact that I got lost, no matter how stupidly.” She shrugs. “I just thought you must have grown up being very independent.”

Luffy rubs harshly at the back of his head with a frown that soon turns into a sheepish smile.

“Uhhh- sorry?”

A nonchalant, vague roll of her shoulders.

“You didn’t know. Besides, weren’t you the one who basically told me you didn’t care about manners?”

“Yeah, but Makino didn’t agree.”

“... Who’s Makino?”

That apparently turns out to be the cue for him to tell -and reenact- the story of his life, probably with a handful of dramatic exaggerations. He rambles on and on, hopping from story to adventure and straight into what he calls ‘having fun’ ( _and that she calls ‘idiotic recklessness bordering on half-intended suicide’_ ).

Some of the charac- _people_ he mentions are familiar to her ears, remnants of her little sister’s babbling about her favourite anime series, and so she allows this familiarity to lull her into a more relaxed state ( _even though she can’t quite forget the shadows prowling through the cracks, just like she can’t quite ignore the shadows in Luffy’s words from all the things he doesn’t tell_ ). She doesn’t let any comment pass her lips, but offers her reactions to his tale clear on her face, rocking gently on her spot in the little boat that is drifting towards nowhere and anywhere.

She doesn’t say anything because the longer he talks, the more she realises that what she hears is Japanese, and she shouldn’t be able to understand it. In her ears, his voice is double, one a stream of muddled sounds that she is only familiar enough with to recognise it as what it is, the other a clear river of her own language. It’s like someone is directly translating his words inside her brain, and it makes her arms tighten their hold and her body tense, as if trying to ward off the perceived invasion. So she keeps her mouth shut. 

(- _what if when she opens it, her voice is double too, the same as his, and it feels like someone is putting the words inside her mouth?_

_She should’ve never read 1984. Her mind really did_ not _need that kind of help._

_She needs enough time to lock the idea away, and Luffy’s brightness is a perfect distraction as she actively smothers it under more positive considerations -it would be a pain to deal with the language barrier_ ).

“So Shanks is your role model in piracy?”

“Yup!”

“And you want to find the One Piece, that just about all the other pirates want to find?”

“Shishishishi! It’s gonna be fun right?!”

“Depends on the kind of pirate, I guess.”

“Uh?”

“You know, the basic definition of a pirate is someone who breaks the law and steals treasures. There are a lot of pirates that you probably wouldn’t consider to be pirates, but as far as just about everyone else is concerned, they are. You probably won’t like meeting some of them.”

“… You think too much, dummy.”

“And you obviously don’t think enough.”

“Ow! Why did you poke me?!”

“Proving a point. You know your skull actually sounds hollow, right?”

“Well it isn’t! It’s because I’m rubber!”

“Oh, so now you’re an expert on the properties of matter?”

“Propretees of what?”

“Don’t pretend to be hurt when I poke you if you’re gonna use the rubber skin argument the second after, it makes it sound like a convenient excuse. Anyway, stop moving so much, you’re going to go overboard, and I’ll be too busy thinking too much to save you a second time.”

“Argh! Stop talking! You’re confusing me!”

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

Eventually, the sun sinks in the sea with an explosion of bloody colours. It somehow feels like her last hope of this- this whole thing being a dream is dying with it ( _except the sun will live again the day after, but her hope will not, because even on the best of days optimism seems like an idiotic waste of energy_ ).

It’s her first night in this new world, and she breaks in strangled silence as soon as Luffy’s breathing settles, drifting locked inside the stifling darkness uniting ocean and sky, the stars glittering ( _beautifully, mockingly_ ), as unreachable as her home ( _because even their reflection in the sea that she can touch is only an illusion, and by now her brain -if not her heart- is quite convinced that this is her new reality_ ).

Quietly, Elynna unlocks her limbs from their position, and slowly moves over to the rail, pausing at each crack of the wooden planks. As silent as she can, she fills her lungs with air, and leans over, until she has immersed the entirety of her head and is pretty sure that she will fall over if she goes any further.

She forces her mind to go blank. 

Silences the painstakingly crafted, protesting jolts of her mind.

And allows a few dams to dissolve.

It takes but a few seconds for the tempest rumbling behind locked bars to whirl violently and rush headfirst along the cracks, tearing into them until they are canyons unable to hold anything back-

She _screams_.

( _-she screams and it all bursts out of her, a jumbled, incomprehensible mess of words and sensations and memories, years-old and washed out but branded deeply enough into the depths of her, mashed into the painful loudness of wounds more shallow-_

_-she screams and screams and screams, but only in her mind, because she knows that water isn’t enough to drown out the noise, so she just wants to give her brain the illusion that for once she has relaxed the hermetic fingers of the invisible hand sealed against her mouth-_

_-she screams until her mind finally, finally_ stops _and her body wraps around it, until the pain in her lungs shuts down this brain that thinks too much, worries too much and cares too little to make her_ do something _, until the burning in her eyes silences this heart that shouldn’t hurt this much for how little she cares, or maybe should hurt more_ -)

Until she doesn’t have any air left, and water starts to come in instead. She closes her mouth to prevent any more from entering, and expels the rest.

The only noise as she straightens up is the creaking of the wood and the drops of water falling from her hair and skin. Lips still closed, she coughs silently, dry hands reaching up to rub salty water away from her eyes.

( _-and she freezes, tries to resist, bares her teeth against the desire, but she’s so so_ weak _-has always been, and all the doors aren’t quite locked or all the walls up yet,_

_so she presses her fingers over her eyes,_ hard _, and then harderharderharder, until it feels like her eyeballs are embedded into her skull -and maybe it’s not so bad if it means that she won’t ever have to see reality break in front of her eyes like that again,_

_and she opens her mouth into a silent, disfigured black hole that takes everything in but never lets anything out-_

_she feels the tears about to fall, and crushes them in her fists before they are even born_ )

When her hands are back on her knees, all dams are raised and hardened again, and she lies down and closes her eyes, setting out to conscientiously kill any remaining hope that she might open them to see the sky of her home, because she doesn’t have the kind of courage it takes to allow herself that and remain sane.

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

His back turned to her, Luffy listens as the Sea Girl’s breathing slows down. He’s pretty sure she’s sad, but he can’t hear her cry at all.

Which is dumb. How will anyone know she needs help if she doesn’t show it? 

(He _can’t help her if she doesn’t ask for it._ )

But it’s already established the she’s dumb. And thinks too much. That weirdo.

( _She’s a sad kind of weird that reminds him of a boy with dark stars flying across his face, like tattoos of the pleas for warmth that were slapped away like insects and then hidden in the blades of his words, of the dreams he used to never talk about_

_Except his brother, at that time, was wrapped in a cocoon of all the rage and the hate and the pain thrown at him, and he feasted on it everyday, let it burn and crackle loudly just beneath his skin to make himself stronger and stronger and_ **_stronger-_ **

_The Sea Girl looks like she’s hiding behind an armour of fear and sadness and contempt that all came out of her own head, and now it’s like her shoulders are stuck under the weight of it, locked and trembling, and... she just looks plain exhausted._ )

Luffy wonders if she can become as awesome as Ace, if he keeps running after her until her armour breaks and she turns around and looks back at him ( _wonders how bright her smile might shine and how her laughter might sound_ ).

Maybe that’s why, on the following day, he doesn’t mind his mouth opening and the words falling out of it, as he watches her trembling hands, as he listens to the words that show him she’s thinking about him just as much as herself despite her apparent lack of care, as he listens to the voice that she’s forcing herself to keep level.

( _He still thinks his idea would work too, though._ )

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

“The weather is so nice today, right?”

“...”

“Yep. Very nice. Don’t you think it’s funny how the weather can be so good when we’re about to die so carelessly?”

“This _is_ a whirlpool… Right?”

“That’s a dumb question, of course it is! It’s really bad that I can’t swim… Ah, but you can! So you can carry me like yesterday and _woosh_!”

The blank stare she pins him under is a better answer than any words.

“Ah, yeah, you’re right. Swimming wouldn’t really help right now.”

As they are caught into the currents, the boat starts to move faster, getting ever so closer to the wide, hungry, crushing mouth of the sea, howling for the life of the prey drawn into its trap.

Luffy cocks his head, eyes set on the trembling hands that look barely able to hold anything and the muted horror in her transfixed stare, and he knows from his own body’s memory that the Sea Girl is absolutely incapable to move.

So he gets up, opens one of the two barrels Makino gave him, and starts emptying its reserve of apples into the ocean, keeping a few ( _read: most_ ) of them under his stretched arm.

Her gaze snaps to him at the noise, and he can almost see the wild, frenzied beat of her heart reflected into it, voice so tight it doesn’t allow any inflection to show through.

“What are you doing.”

“Nothing we can do, so let’s just take a nap in there. Who knows, we might just survive! We even have food! … Although, meat would’ve been better.”

He laughs loudly, partly because he’s proud to have come up with such a good idea, partly to cover the noise of the possible death they’re rushing towards and which is monopolising her thoughts.

She keeps staring, until the boat lurches as it starts changing direction at the ocean’s will.

And then she’s scrambling to her feet on trembling legs, reaching towards the second barrel to throw away the drinkable water it contains.

“What are you doing?”

“If the both of us go in there,” she directs a vague nod towards his barrel, “we have more chance of being too heavy and to end up drowning when the waters will calm down -if we even make it to that point alive. Also, there’s no way I’m getting stuck with you and apples in a barrel that’s going to roll around in a goddamn whirpool for who knows how long. Since you’ve kept the mooring rope, just tie the two barrels together, it might just give us a chance of not losing each other.”

“Why should I be the one to make the knot?”

“Because I have no fucking idea of how to make one.”

Luffy laughs, and steps up beside her, hands already working on the rope as he proceeds to loop it several times between both barrels. 

Water splashes their legs, and the boat is getting more and more unstable, making Elynna’s movements stutter and a weird, trembling noise escape her mouth.

Luffy laughs again, slapping her hard in the back to distract her.

“Stop worrying so much! It’s gonna be fine!”

“Stop _not_ worrying. You’re gonna get killed, and it will probably be mostly your fault.” She snaps back. 

But there’s no heat behind the words ( _only studious indifference as she carefully lets the words out from behind clenched teeth designed to retain all the fear inside_ ), because she doesn’t need to be a die hard fan to know that he’s a lost cause. 

“Shishishishishi! Join my crew then!”

For a moment she’s convinced that she has just been slapped in the face by one of the increasingly agitated waves around them because-

“ _What?_ ”

And that idiot repeats the exact same words, but spending a night with him was probably enough to make her just as much of an idiot, because she cannot comprehend these words, in that order, _directed at her_. 

( _The members of the Straw Hat Pirates are supposed to be exceptional. Geniuses in their field. Resourceful. Brave. Who know how to fight in so many ways._

_Not… Not someone like_ her.)

Her brain has never been brought to a stop so easily.

“You can worry for me so that I don’t die, and I’ll hit you when you start to be annoying. We’ll be a perfect team!”

Her brain reboots. 

_Shut your mouth. Do_ not _answer carelessly._

_Rationalise._

_Pros._

_Cons._

_And god fucking_ damnit _, it’s not because you’re close enough to the beast ready to eat your whole self to be able to see the entire effing thing, that you cannot waste your life away in hesitation like you always do._

Saying yes is a stupid idea, because even if her little sister didn’t regularly chatter on and on in her ear about some episode or another, she’s painfully aware of the danger someone like Monkey D. Luffy can bring -and land himself in. She also knows that the general law of shōnen manga is that the main character does reach his dreams, but that he usually loses things in the process. Things… and people. 

_She doesn’t want to be one of those things._

But if her appearance in this world is not a coincidence, then the fact that she appeared near him, just in time to save _him_ , who is basically the reason why this world exists in the first place, must mean _something_. Somehow, if he’s linked to her presence here, then he might just be the key to going home -or at least the best lead she has as of now. Travelling the world with him is anyway a good way to find information.

And saying no, if he ( _someone with such strength of will_ ) even accepts it ( _and if someone as weak-willed as her can even stand her ground_ ), means having to learn how to live alone in a world that is not hers, filled with pirates, and Marines that are not necessarily nicer than them. Luffy and his future is the only thing she knows, her only anchor, and, well-

( _She has always been even more of a coward when faced with the unknown._ )

Her brain is quick to present her with the arguments, and the conclusion is terrifyingly, horrifyingly clear.

Their boat rocks so hard that she almost tumbles into the sea.

_Fuck her life_.

“Fine. Now get in that barrel, Captain, instead of standing around waiting to drown.”

Even as he obeys, her newly-minted nightm- Captain keeps whooping in joy and babbling on and on about how he’s just getting started and _just you see Shanks-_

His voice fades away once she closes the barrel. And as she tries to get as comfortable as she can in a goddamn barrel of all things, as she feels the boat overturning, the only thing she can think is-

_Fuck. She’s going to be one of the only characters of this world with more than two brain cells. And she’s probably going to lose them if she spends too much time with all those who have a negative number of it._

_… She just joined the Straw Hat Pirates._

_Shit._

_Shit, shit, shit._

_She’s-_

**_She is. So._ ** **Screwed.**

… 

_Well, at least she’ll get to meet some nice-looking people._

…

…

She always sucks at being optimistic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The words in italic that I put in the very beginning of the chapter and that look like a bad poem don’t come from any song or quote (unless I’m subconsciously plagiarising, in which case feel free to tell me). They won’t always be from Elynna’s POV or directed at one person in particular. Have fun guessing and commenting on it.
> 
> #FTSFact1: So I have this thing where I try to imagine Elynna in the OP openings and how she would fit.  
> Opening One 〜 Faces come and go in short flashes. A boy with a straw hat looks over his shoulder and waves, a confident smile in place -like he can already see his dream being achieved, blue sky like infinite freedom sprawling in front of him. A girl lying at the very edge of the beach in shallow water, hair floating like seaweed around her and sand stuck on her body, looking for all the world like she got washed ashore, eyes hazy and half-lidded -as if daydreaming. A man, hair a soft green and smirk screaming of violence, teeth gleaming like the sword propped against his shoulder as he looks down at you. Another girl, with a pretty face like an angel’s and a cheeky smile like an incoming storm that you can’t escape. Another boy with sharp eyes that gleam with mischief and black curls as crazy as the ideas that bloom inside his mind. A man again, hair like gold under the sun and cigarette held elegantly, the swirl of his eyebrow the only hint to the fact that he’s crazy enough to be in this crew.
> 
> Thank you for reading, and I wish you the best until the next update!


	3. TWO

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Luffy doesn't like names longer than two syllables, and Elynna faces a few realities that come with transmigrating.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought I would update yesterday… but then I ended up watching La La Land with me, myself and I (just kidding it was a family night). So yeah.
> 
> Anyway, thank you to those who decided the first two chapters were worth a fav/follow! I kept checking every few hours to see if the numbers went up or not... (I was excited ok?)
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, so anything that you see in this fic and that you can recognise as belonging to One Piece is not mine. If I did own it, I wouldn’t have to write fanfiction. Duh.

**Part One - Dive|rgence**

  
  


**TWO**

  
  


_I thought I was dead, but_

_it is worse than that._

_Like living somebody else’s life._

_Except that you_ **_see_ ** _me,_

_and so I at least know I exist-_

_(Even if I don’t quite feel alive)_

  
  


**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

  
  


Quietly, Elynna releases the breath she was unconsciouly holding. She passed out at some point during the storm, after an abrupt tumble sent her head knocking into the barrel ( _the way her heart stopped when water started filtering into it and then ran fast enough to make her vision blurry and her breath struggle to catch up probably played a role, too_ ), and was only woken up a few minutes ago by the sound of footsteps, confirming that the stability she feels under her body is actually the ground.

The weakness in her limbs probably attests to how little faith she still has in the dubious protection plot armour grants her as a crewmate of the main character.

( _It’s a good thing she was unconscious for most of the tempest._

_Something painful like drowning is_ not _the way she wants to go._

~~_Sleeping, on the other hand, sounds rather nice_ _._~~ )

She doesn’t know who was shuffling around her barrel a moment ago, but they seem to have left, at least for now.

This is her best chance. ( _And if she doesn’t get out of here now, she feels like her bone structure will be stuck that way forever, not to mention the potential for claustrophobia._ )

She lurches on the side, grunting when she lands on the ground with a muffled sound. Not the softest landing ever, but right about now she only feels able to crawl out of her safe place.

She throws her fist at the lid, eyelids going white and making her thankful that she thought about closing her eyes before. Groping around blindly, feeling the sand under her hands, she starts moving with a low moan, because _fuck_ , it feels like she’s trying to move with a body halfway transformed into stone, and it _hurts_. Her muscles seize, her bones groan and pop and _is this what it feels like when werewolves morph?_

She blames the question on the current, frankly fucked up state of her brain, and settles on her back, sprawled out on the beach in the middle of goddamn nowhere.

( _-takes a moment to let her brain think._

_She’s nauseous, sore all over and_ -she checks her skin by lifting an arm that barely holds in the air for a second before falling back limply at her side- _yep, bruised all over too, to the point that she tries to lighten her breathing, except at some point it’s not enough anymore so she bursts into a coughing fit, which makes everything throb until she sees_ black-

Note to self: never do that again.

_But it all means that she’s still alive, against all odds. Which is a good thing._

_..._

_Probably._

_And the state of her body matches that of her mind, which is… not a good thing, actually._

_As expected, positive thinking is really not her thing._ )

She probably got some sea water in her eyes so it burns like a bitch when she eventually tries to open her eyes, but she forces herself to blink repeatedly until it’s bearable, because there’s no guarantee that they’re safe-

She sits up suddenly, cursing under her breath at the stabbing pain radiating from her midsection.

_Her Captain is not here_.

She scrambles clumsily to her feet for a larger field of vision, but she can’t see the second barrel anywhere and the rope tying it to hers is cut and-

_Wait_.

She blocks her breathing ( _until the rising haze of panic that seized her by her throat and whose tendrils are invading her mind retreats, replaced by calm, pristine waters and the ruthless grip of her logic_ ). 

Then she limps closer to the rope, frowning. 

She’s no Sherlock Holmes, but she’s pretty sure this cut is too clean to have been done by anything other than a sharp object -like a blade.

_Which means…_

She shifts her gaze around, until it finally settles on the large track in the sand, and the traces of footsteps inside it.

_Like someone walking while rolling a barrel in front of them_.

Her shoulders loosen, relieved. 

( _She won’t even try to pretend to herself that she cares for his well-being out of anything other than selfishness, just like her reasons to follow him are entirely for herself. She’s a selfish bitch -_ a scared child _, and she knows it._ )

Now that her most pressing worry is assuaged, she throws herself into a series of stretches, until the soreness subsides to a level she can ignore and she’s satisfied with her range of mobility.

( _Because living this kind of life will mean fighting and running away on a daily basis, both of which she’s already useless enough at, so she’ll be damned if she lets herself go stiff of all things._ )

Then she reaches for her rucksack inside the barrel. 

That’s when the explosion rumbles through the ground, startling her. Heart beating wildly, her eyes flit around until they find a cloud of smoke, the kind that she’s ready to bet probably results from a collapsing building, and more importantly from her Captain’s tendency to get into Trouble.

_Well._

_At least he’s easy to find._

And on that note she heads for the forest, because this all means that other people are here. In the case that they turn out to be not-so-friendly, she decides it’s better to choose the path that is not an open field.

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

Eventually, she happens upon what probably used to be a storage house but is now mostly a pile of wood, with a smaller shed beside it, still standing. There doesn’t seem to be anyone else here. After a last visual check of her surroundings, she hurries to the shed, leaving the door slightly open to bring a sliver of daylight into the dark room without making it too obvious that someone is inside.

Quickly, she assesses the resources present, and gets to work. 

First, clothes. Because she sure as hell is _not_ going back to civilisation in a bikini.

On one shelf, there is a pile of what are probably uniforms, with a symbol that looks like some kind of bird on the back. She puts on the dark blue pants and the white shirt at the bottom of the pile, whose symbol is almost faded. They’re a bit too big, so she ties a rope around her waist for the pants, before taking another, since their mooring rope is no longer… able to fulfill its original function.

Then she stuffs two boxes of dried meat in her bag, followed by a wad of cash she finds hidden between stacks of maps. She doesn’t know how much it’s worth, but having money can always prove useful.

On the doorstep, she stops.

Hesits. 

Balks.

And turns around, going straight to another shelf, where her hand hovers above an object.

( _When she finally takes it, the knife is heavy_

_like the knowledge that if she ever uses it, it may be to hurt -to kill even._

_She has never been confronted to violence in her life before. Has only seen it inked harshly on a page by words or blaring at her through images and screens._

_She is probably more likely to run at the first hint of danger than fight, but she has no idea how she will actually react, and in any case it’s better to have it and not use it than the other way around, so she slips the blade between the fabric of her pants and the rope, its weight cold against the bone of her hip._

_-_ ~~ _most of all though, she’s scared that violence will make her feel_ nothing~~)

When she comes out, the weight of the sun on her shoulders makes her feel like she’s a ghost that has just become substantial again, after a long, long time spent in some dark, cold place.

She brings a hand up to shade her eyes, and looks down at the forest sprawling at her feet. 

Her lips twist in a pout.

_Time to find the idiot she calls Captain._

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

“Ow! Why did you hit me?! Well, it’s not like I’m not used to it.” Coby laughs weakly, the throbbing on his skull nothing compared to how his heart sinks under the weight of the self-deprecating thought.

“Just because.” Luffy shrugs, before taking off the straw hat on his head to stare at it, with something akin to promise and feral thirst in the intensity of his eyes and the baring of teeth in his smile. “Besides, it’s not about it being possible or impossible. It’s my dream, I can’t give it anything less than my all. And if I die, that’s that.”

“Please tell me that you’re not going to make a habit of hitting your crew, because otherwise I’m changing my mind.”

When the sound of feet crushing leaves reaches his ears, Coby is staring in amazed awe at the other boy (- _who looks so naive, and yet the way he speaks sounds like his words tell the truth of the world, or maybe like the world will follow his words, willingly or not, and Coby is already being dragged into their trail-_ ).

He jumps to his feet, ready to run at the feminine voice, because the only feminine voice here is that of-

He blinks.

“You’re… Not Alvida-sama.”

The girl blinks back, and quirks a brow. 

“I’m pretty sure I’m not. And I sure as hell hope so, if she’s the reason you were about to run away.”

“Ann! Man, I’m so glad you found us, I had no idea where you we- Wait! What’s this about leaving?! I refuse!”

“It was a-”

“I refuse!” 

“Don’t be stupid. I’m not leaving.” She rolls her eyes at the obstinate set of his chin and, seeing that he is still staring at her, rummages in her bag before throwing him a box of dried meat. 

His face changes so quickly, and his smile is so large, it’s almost comical.

_Weakness n°1: Food._

“Thanks Ann! You’re the best!”

“Whatever. Where did that name come from anyway? You could at least try to remember the names of your crewmates.”

“It’s too long! Ann is better.”

Elynna rolls her eyes. Again. 

_… She should probably be careful if she’s gonna hang around him for the foreseeable future. Her eyes might just stay stuck this way at some point._

“Hm… Ann…-san?”

She winces internally as she finds herself forced to direct her attention to the unknown boy by Luffy’s side.

( _Her Captain is one of those people she finds easy to talk to, even when she doesn’t like them._

_One of those people with enough confidence, ego or passion to take hold of the conversation. One of those people with whom she doesn’t have to make an effort, with whom she just has to listen, ask a few questions here and there, and basically just exist enough to be a polite audience._

_And then there are people, either shy or disinterested, with whom she finds herself cringing and cowering, shoulders curling under the weight of a painfully uncomfortable silence. With whom she has to force herself, ripping her lips apart into a smile that doesn’t_ mean _anything, clawing into her mind for a subject that is going to be interesting enough without being controversial, or an excuse to leave that will be convincing enough-_ )

She offers a polite nod and a vague smile. 

(- _but it’s meaningless, worthless_ -)

“Elynna. Hello.”

The boy perks up a bit, raising his face until she can see the eyes that were hidden under pink bangs. 

“Ah- hello! I’m Coby!”

“Nice to meet you.”

“Y-yes! So, um… Are you with Luffy-san?”

His eyes bounce nervously between her and the other boy, round and open. Alight with something like awe and fire. 

Inspired.

( _Like people looking at others they admire, at their role model, at those who represent their goal and the accomplishment of their dream._

_She’s never had one of those._ )

“Yep! She’s my First Mate! Well, she’s the only member of my crew for now, but we’re gonna look for the others! A dozen or so sounds good.”

“I-Is that so? But, um, Elynna-san… Why are you wearing a Marine’s uniform?”

She looks down at herself, and remembers the bird-like symbol on the back of the shirts.

_Ah_.

So that’s why it was familiar. She has glimpsed enough of the Straw Hats’ battles against Marines on the screen of her family’s TV to know about the seagull on their flag, after all.

“Is that what it is?” She shrugs. “I just needed clothes, so I stole some.”

Luffy laughs openly, looking proud with himself for some reason.

“See? You’ll make a great pirate!”

… 

She... cannot even say anything to that.

_That little shit._

“Yeah, yeah. So what are we doing now?”

Luffy jumps down from the barrel on which he was sitting, one hand on his hat so that it doesn’t fly off. His laughter stops as he straightens up, but the megawatt smile is still there.

“Coby told me that he was the prisoner of a pirate crew, and they have a big ship on the other side of the island, so there probably are some row boats there. I hope they’ll be nice enough to lend us one if we ask!”

The pink-haired boy’s face whips around so fast that Elynna winces. His jaw promptly hits the ground as he realises that Luffy is serious, eyes blown out and mouth opening and closing soundlessly like a fish out of water.

Clearly, he is rather convinced that this is a Very Bad Idea. 

_Suicidal, it-was-great-knowing-you-man-amen level of Bad._

“Considering that they have a child prisoner” ( _she glances at the harsh red on his fingers and the bruise peeking out of his sleeve, remembers his unsure voice and_ it’s not like I’m not used to it) “that they drive like a slave, I don’t think they’re on the nice side of the spectrum, but I guess it doesn’t hurt to try.”

( _She knows what Coby is living through. Her brain recognises it for what it is._

_There’s a vague, nauseous feeling in her stomach and she thinks she feels her chest clench._

_But everything else feels… numb._

_She doesn't know if it is because she feels too many things, or nothing at all._

_None- None of this... feels_ real _, even though she knows it happens in her own world._ )

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

As they walk through the forest, Luffy skips around, oh-ing and ah-ing with a running commentary on how this animal looks great and _hey, let’s try to ride that one, it looks fun!_

Coby watches him, caught between admiring his absolute fearlessness at the situation, or how easily he makes his way through the dense forest, and fearing for his life because one day, he was sure that the pirate would try and ride a giant snake for shit and giggles. 

( _Elynna can almost see the thought flying around in his mind._

_Bless his ignorant soul, unaware that this particular incident has already happened._

_Several times._

_… What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him, as they say._ )

He also watches Luffy’s First Mate, trudging along silently after him, far from looking as comfortable as he does. She doesn’t trip more than a few times though, and she doesn’t complain.

He thinks that neither of them really look like the pirates he has always wanted to arrest ( _those who steal gold, lives and happiness alike, leaving towns and islands painted red like blood and black like ashes, permeated with the smell of tears_ ).

He also thinks that they don’t really look like Captain and First Mate, that in fact they don’t really look like they belong together. 

( _that the boy is too loud, too bright for the girl to keep up, or that the girl is too muted for the boy to keep her by his side_ ) 

But then Luffy launches himself at some kind of green mushrooms with the clear intention of eating them, and she catches him by the back of his shirt, his momentum sending them sprawling backwards on top of each other as she tugs him to her.

Elynna blows a strand of hair away from her face, and looks down at the already giggling dark-haired boy lying on top of her.

“Look, Captain. You can stuff anything into your mouth after we have found a doctor, or a necromancer who can bring you back from the dead because you stupidly poisoned yourself. In the meantime, behave.”

His neck twists unnaturally until he can more or less look at her in the eyes. She scrunches her nose at the frankly disturbing sight.

“What’s a necronam- necorn- nero-”

She flicks him in the forehead.

“Get up. I can’t answer you if I can’t breathe.”

And then they are on their feet, Elynna nonchalantly explaining what a necromancer is and how _believe me, Captain, if I knew a necromancer, my goldfish wouldn’t have died that soon. In fact, he would’ve broken all the longevity records of goldfishes and I would definitely have gotten money for it_ and Luffy isn’t looking at the mushrooms anymore.

Coby understands a little bit better, and thinks that maybe they might just fit after all.

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

They’re standing on the upper deck of the ( _very kitsch_ ) ship, and Elynna thinks that everything is too calm.

Luffy told her what happened on his end on the way here, and so she’s reasonably sure that the crew of pirates present on the island knows of their presence. Well, his, at least.

But there doesn’t seem to be anyone on the ship. A ship that, Coby told her, _has been cleaned thoroughly that very morning_ , as the Captain decided to go on an expedition.

She deduces that there _are_ people on this ship, and that she is royally _screwed_ , because now they know that she’s with the boy who already annoyed them.

Maybe that’s why she doesn’t listen when Coby starts exposing his dream to her Captain, too busy with slowly backing off until her back is pressed to the railing of the ship, in an effort to widen her field of vision and make sure that no one can attack her from behind.

It’s also probably why she only jumps two feet in the air -but doesn’t scream- when a group of men emerges from the lower decks and gathers around them, and the Captain makes a rather… sensational entrance. 

As in there is now a _big_ hole in her ship’s upper deck that looks like a mace crashed through it… which is actually what happened.

Elynna slaps a hand over her mouth, catching the whimper rising up to her lips and stuffing it back down her throat in an attempt to make her presence as small as she can (- _until it disappears,_

_she wants to_ disappear.

_She wants to go home._

_She didn’t think about this._

_-pushed it down and away with everything else that made her throat close up and her stomach churn and twist and burn like acid_

_and now it’s exploding in her face, because she’s a fucking_ coward _who can’t face her problems head on-_

_how people’s capabilities are so beyond that of her world’s, so_ absurd, _and how it is only matched by the scale of violence-_

_she’s not some kind of badass superhero, she doesn’t even have any training, or any kind of pain resilience,_

_she’s normalweakscared_

_t_

_E_

_r_

_R_

_i_

_F_

_i_

_E_

_d-_

_how is she supposed to deal with this?_ )

“Did you think you could escape from me?”

She blinks hard, feels the cold sweat sticking her shirt to her back, presses her trembling ( _shaking, why are they shaking?_ ) hand harder against her mouth to silence the harshness of her breathing and chase away the nausea that is making her dizzy.

Fixes her eyes on the tall, imposing pirate and the mace in her hands until all other thoughts fizzle out.

Scraps the skin off her lips with her teeth until her vision is clear, until the sound of her breathing ( ~~ _loud, too loud, makeitstop_~~ ) fades in the background and the taste of blood tethers her back to reality.

_She doesn’t have time for this._

“So that’s who you hired to get rid of me?” The woman smirks, beady eyes smugly staring at Luffy’s face -she doesn’t seem very impressed with what she sees. “He doesn’t look like Roronoa Zoro. Now, before you die, tell me, Coby. What’s the most beautiful thing in the sea?”

The answer she’s waiting for seems rather obvious.

Coby somehow manages to stiffen and shake like a leaf at the same time.

Elynna’s hands stop trembling because _damn, I know that beauty is subjective, but that’s one hell of an ego. How did that idea even get into her head?_

“Who’s this fat old hag?”

There’s a hushed silence.

A bird squawks.

A pirate’s grip on his weapon loosens, and the blade sinks into his foot.

_For a man, his scream is rather high-pitched,_ she thinks mildly.

Karma is a bitch.

It’s fortunate that she still has a hand over her lips, because this time around it’s her incredulous giggle that she must keep from spilling out ( _the noise in the background of her mind dies down, and she thinks that she may just have found another benefit to having joined that nutcase of a Captain_ ).

She should probably teach him some manners so that he doesn’t go spewing that to some random person, though -especially if the person in question can offer help.

The straw-hatted boy’s words seem to have the opposite effect on Coby, however, as he grabs him by the shoulders and starts shaking him frantically, as if he’s trying to make Luffy’s stupid mouth fly out of him.

_She thinks he should probably try to shove a filter between his brain and his mouth instead._

Besides, she’s pretty sure that her Captain is not entirely stupid… depending on the angle… maybe.

“Luffy-san! Repeat after me! Quick! In all the seas, this woman is the… the… the ruddest damn bitch!”

_Oh man, is that a bee that she can hear back in the forest?_

She can’t quite hide her snort this time.

( _It’s a bit bitter because, well,_

_she thought he was someone she could relate to, in all his cowardice,_

_so why did he have to go and be all brave like this?_

_She comforts herself knowing that in this case, the line between brave and stupid is kind of blurred, and her not being that kind of stupid is precisely the reason why Luffy took her in._ )

It’s probably a good thing that she already knows what to expect of a rubber man in action, because otherwise she just might be too busy staring at the way the woman’s blow does absolutely nothing to Luffy to notice that a few men are already heading her way.

She instinctively takes a step away, only for her back to bump into the railing of the ship, and her heart _pounds_.

It’s like her brain is trapped in something sluggish and sticky, slowing it downd o w n d o w n,

her vision like instant shots, telling her that they’re getting _closer_ , but her body just _can’t move-_

Thirty feet.

Their weapons shine silver in the sunlight. She thinks it’s terrifyingly pretty, and that these two words have nothing to do so close to each other.

(- _and if she can’t use her brain, the one thing that might prove slightly useful in here, then what the_ fuck _is she good for?_ )

Fifteen feet.

Their eyes gleam, and she knows that they know that she _cannot move_ -

( _Don’t just stand there, you useless little bitch!_

**_Move_ ** _!_

_Move move move movemovemovemovemovemOvE-)_

Six fee-

She doesn’t really think. 

Her hands are griping the railing shakingly, so hard she doesn’t even notice it because they have gone numb.

And then she’s toppling over backwards, spine rolling on the edge of the rail-

There’s a streak of fire just above her knees and her thighs close viciously around _something-_

( _The edge of a sword almost slices off her nose and she vaguely figures that a pirate thrusted the blade forward and somehow his arm ended up between her legs-_ )

She pushes harder on her hands 

-so hard that her head goes smacking against the hull, 

but she’s rewarded by the scream of the pirate whose arm she tugged on until he went overboard with her.

She follows him, letting herself fall into the sea.

It’s like entering a soundproof room when there’s a hard metal live concert outside.

She closes her eyes, and everything slides back into place, easy like the flow of water, breathing slow and deep, thoughts calm and _there_.

Carefully, she looks around, but doesn’t see the other man, so she swims over to the shadow casted by the pier linking the ship to the island, and slowly surfaces.

Just long enough to see that the other men who ran at her are apparently not waiting for her anymore, and that the one from earlier went to call some friends.

They are here, in the distance, running towards the ship.

Her eyes flit upwards, and she bites at her lips, tasting the salt of the sea.

_If she’s going to do this, she has to do it now. And fast._

With a deep breath, she stuffs her long hair into her shirt and swims swiftly back to the island. 

She barely crawls out of the water before, noticing that the incoming group is hidden behind the last bend of path, she gets on her feet and runs to the pier and across it, crawling up the last portion of it and stopping at the top to lay down so that no one would see her.

And then she waits.

Waits until the group from the island enters her field of vision again.

Waits until they start running on the pier and the first one of the line locks eyes with her.

She rolls herself onto the deck, and with a heave, throws the pier away from the ship.

Loud laughter covers their collective screams, and her body staggers, trapped between fear of a sound hinting at someone’s presence in her back, when she’s in the middle of a fear-induced adrenaline shot ( _-never, ever let your guard down, you worthless, clueless fool-_ ), and relief at the familiarity of it.

When she turns around, her Captain is standing there, surrounded with the whole bunch of ruffians, looking duly freaked out and much more subdued.

“Good job, Ann! That was cool!”

The words are slow in working their way up her throat ( _for a moment, she doesn’t quite remember how anything else than an inarticulate scream of terror is supposed to come out_ ).

“... Looks like you had fun, Captain.”

He laughs again, and this time the relief clearly wins over.

“Yup! And I got us a new boat!”

“I hope it’s not as kitsch as the ship, otherwise I’m swimming to the next island. I’ve got a reputation to uphold, you know.”

( _She doesn’t. Because here, she has nothing, has no one,_ is nothing _. So how can she be sure that she exists?_

_But then he laughs, again, even louder, like a wordless answer._

_And each time she hears the sound, it sounds a bit more real._ )

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

She’s laying across the rowboat, at one end of it, the soles of her feet skimming over the surface of the sea on one side and hair soaking in it on the other. 

Between the sand, the wind and the seawater, it’s going to be hell to take care of this mess of thick curls. 

( _but she doesn’t have the energy to be anything else than tiredly annoyed at the change in her hair texture, not with everything else that-_ ) 

But since it’s ruined anyway, she might as well do what she wants with it.

The feeling of this weight being dragged along languidly with the boat makes her shiver in appreciation, and she rolls her neck backwards against the hull.

Opening her eyes slightly, she winces at the vibrant blue of the sky, harshly lit by the sunlight and its reflection on the oily surface below. She brings a hand up to shield herself-

And stops.

Her hand… 

Is trembling, tremors running through it in spasms. 

When she tries closing it into a fist, she finds that there is no strength in her grip.

She looks at her hand going limp, gaze heavy and inert, its light snuffed out as her mind turns inwards.

( _To the memory of how she survived tumbling through a tempest in a wooden barrel, and the few stretching exercises that were enough to bring her mobility back to its usual level._

_To the way she managed to flip a fully-grown man overboard without much strain -even if she used her momentum, and the way she was able to shift a long, large wooden plank with a dozen of people on it like it was nothing -even if the plank was already unstable._

_To the fact that the shallow, burning line drawn above her knee has already stopped crying crimson tears._

_To how her hands are_ still shaking.)

Her arm suddenly feels heavy, so she lets it fall back at her side, and then closes her eyes. 

Somehow, it feels like doing anything more than the basic body functions is taking more energy out of her than she can gather. 

Feels like this body is less and less hers, and is letting her know it.

( _She’s not that strong. Has never been._

_It probably will never change, what with her cowardness. She’s barely brave enough to force herself to leave her home for college, has never managed to push herself into doing anything in her life besides studying -let alone something like getting into a fight._

_She’s somewhat relieved that this body seems to have the healing rate and physical capabilities of a manga character, though._

_And that she’s not desensitised enough to violence to not get scared when attacked._

~~_She’s not sure that, if it were the case, the thought that_ closing her eyes and letting everything fade away might not be so bad _would be as fleeting as usual_ _._ ~~

_But she hates that she wasn’t able to to reign the fear in, hates that she couldn’t control it, hates that her mind was too overwhelmed, too weak, too slow to use her fear to heighten her senses rather than let it dull them into white noise_

_-hates how useless it was, how useless_ she _was-_ )

She breathes out, until her throat coughs silently around the lack of air and her lungs feel like they’re gasping.

Then she breathes in, slowly. Until she can somewhat feel her mind settling back under the skin of ( ~~ _this body_~~ ) her body.

There’s a hollowness beneath her ribcage, slowly expanding, prowling and creeping outwards, but she can’t quite find, can’t quite connect to the will to do something about it. She wonders if the thing is eating away at that part of her too ( _that part that can want and act on it_ ), or if she was just fucked up from the beginning ( _when?_ ). It might just be the latter -she’s never been very willful after all.

Something flicks her in the forehead. 

She suddenly remembers where she is, and that there are other people with her.

Another flick.

“Annnnnnnnnn. Stop sleeping, it’s not night yet!”

She opens half-lidded eyes that vaguely stare at the brown ones of her Captain.

“Not sleeping. ’m thinking.”

_Not that I would expect you to know what the latter means._

“Well you should stop. You looked like you were having a nightmare.”

_Oh, I’m not. If it was a nightmare, I’d be able to wake up._

“Weren’t you the one to offer me a place so that there would be someone to think for you? This is your fault.”

Luffy pouts, eyebrows furrowed in displeasure.

“I don’t care! I’m not letting you go!”

“Get your finger out of my face before I bite it off… Captain.”

She snaps her teeth together lazily for good measure, and watches with vague amusement as he cradles said finger to his chest with an indignant squawk, eyeing her warily.

“Anyway. Did you need me for something?”

“Yes!”

She turns her head a bit so that she can look at Coby properly, and he squirms under the weight of the duo’s attention.

“Um, Luffy-san wants to take Roronoa Zoro on his crew!”

_Ah._

She knows that name.

Remembers three katanas and green hair.

_And-_

She slides her tongue against her upper teeth and gums to distract herself from the uncomfortable twist in her stomach, gaze seeking that of the dark-haired boy.

He smiles that abnormally wide smile, and flops backwards until he’s lying on her, head propped on his crossed arms that are cushioned by her stomach.

She stares at him, half-ready to shift away from his weight, because it’s the first time that someone is this casual in touching her.

( _And oh, she wants, she_ craves _this kind of relationship -romantic or not,_

_where she wouldn’t need to always think, always doubt, always question herself before reaching out,_

_where she wouldn’t need to add another large sweatshirt over her layers of clothes for warmth, because there would be someone just_ there,

_where she wouldn’t feel like an intruder, because she would know that the other party likes it,_ wants _it just as much as she does,_

_where she wouldn’t be left to wonder if there is something wrong with her, something that traces this line around her, that people don’t try to cross and that she is too afraid to break-_ )

In the end, she stays, muscles unclenching as he keeps smiling that stupidly adorable smile at her. 

( _His skin is warm on her bare stomach, and his weight is so amazingly_ real _she could laugh -or cry._ )

“Yep! If he’s a good guy, I think I’ll ask him to join us!”

“You can’t do that! Luffy-san, I’m sure you can find much less dangerous crewmates than this demon! Elynna-san, please tell him!”

“… Nah.”

“Wh- Why?!”

“Cause I don’t know anything about him, and even if I did, I’ve never met him. I wouldn’t know if he’s a ‘good guy’ or not. ‘Sides, I don’t wanna waste my breath telling him things that he won’t pay attention to.”

“But-”

She closes her eyes, leaning her head back to let more hair soak in the sea.

“Chill, Coby-san. Captain said he would meet him and then decide, not that he would march through the town and kidnap him without any prior conversation.”

There’s a nervous but resigned sigh.

“I guess… you’re right.”

“You bet I am.”

“Shishishishi! You’re such a weirdo, Ann.”

“Course I am. It’s a goddamn criteria to be in your crew.”

He laughs again, without any sign of shame or disagreement. 

Until she pokes blindly at his head, unworried at the possibility of hitting him in the eye considering his immunity against blunt force.

He still protests for the fun of it, though.

“Ow! What was that for?!”

She ignores him, and ignores his poking at her cheek in retaliation, too.

“If Alvida was right, this Roronoa Zoro is a bounty hunter, right?”

A meek confirmation comes from her left.

“They call him the Pirate Hunter, since he specialises in… well, pirates’ bounties.”

“Hmm… Captain.”

“What?”

“If he does turn out to be a good guy, convincing a pirate hunter to become a pirate will probably be tricky. Better start thinking about it.”

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

When the sky bleeds into darkness and the two boys’ eyelids start closing more often than not, she asks Coby to tell her in which direction to take the boat. Which leads to him lamenting the fact that her and Luffy chose to be pirates with their abysmal knowledge -or lack thereof- in navigation, to Luffy laughing at her, and to her fingers pinching Luffy’s nose in retaliation ( _she thinks she should probably worry if she starts hitting everyone around her like shōnen characters tend to do_ ). They can’t afford to get lost when they have no food, after all. 

Once they are asleep, she waits for a few more minutes before taking her shirt and pants off and slipping into the ocean, careful to not rock the boat too much.

After hours of napping in the sunlight with little wind and clothes stiffened by salty water, the coolness of the sea feels deliciously sleek on her skin. She allows herself a few, slow laps around the boat to reinvigorate her limbs, and then comes beside the boat so that she doesn’t have to turn her head too much to check its direction.

Her ears are covered by the water, and she’s deaf to the world and her own breath ( _but she_ feels _it, just_ there, _inside her, feels the air flowing in the throat, beneath the collarbone and within the lungs that feel like_ hers-). Time slips through her as she stares vacantly at the moon and the stars, eyes flitting quickly to the helm every few seconds.

A lone wave washes over her, and instinctively her breath stops and she lets herself sink a bit lower beneath the surface, eyes closed to ward off the burning of the salt and-

**_there was a boat. Floating aimlessly. With a presence -something old. Powerful. The sea sloshed eagerly._ **

**(Time for you to go to sea again, is it?**

**There was a silence, answered by a chuckle.**

**You don’t seem quite awake yet. Well, it’s alright. There’s still time.)**

**_“Thank you!”_ **

**_She groaned as her little sister lunged at her form, burrowed under her blanket._ **

**_“What for?”_ **

**_“For the Zoro figurine! It’s so great! I’m so gonna brag to Sam about it!”_ **

**_“Yes, well, you could wait until I’m up to tell me that.” She grumbled half-heartedly._ **

**_“Stop trying to sleep in, you never manage to anyway. Besides, look! Isn’t he so cool?! I mean, no one else can use the Three Swords Style in One Piece, he’s so great! Plus he fits Luffy so well, he’s, like, the perfect First Mate for him! And he’s a samurai!”_ **

**_In spite of the constant nudging of her sister, she didn’t open her eyes, eyelids heavy despite the fact that she knew she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep._ **

**_“Whatever. Just make sure your fangirling doesn’t end up being a full-on crush. Fantasising about a 2D character doesn’t provide very realistic material for masturbation, even if you buy a life-sized figurine.”_ **

**_There was a thumping noise from beside her bed, and suddenly the weight on her body was gone._ **

**_“Oh my god! I’m ashamed to be your sister! How can you keep a straight face when saying that kind of thing?! I’m leaving!”_ **

**_Satisfied that her plan worked, she burrowed herself back under the weight of her blanket._ **

A garbled sound reaches her ears, and she lets out a mouthful of bubbles ( _how long has she been under?_ ).

Her first thought when she emerges is to check the helm, but either it hasn’t strayed off their path or she just didn’t understand anything of what Coby explained to her.

She blinks, lethargic and vaguely confused.

_What was that?_

The second memory was somewhat normal, considering where they were heading ( _but even though she didn’t see her sister’s face, even though they weren’t particularly close, she feels her heart rising in her throat, obstructing her airpath and_ twistingtearingshattering.

_She feels like she will cough up bloody shards and tears thick with the hoarseness of her screams, and so she presses her lips together._

_She was about to leave for college. She knew she wouldn’t be able to see her family for long periods of time._

_But she thought she would be able to keep in touch through texts and video calls, that she would come back for the holidays._

_Not that daydreaming and washed-out memories would be the only things left of them._

_not that her sister’s voice would already be heartwrenchingly blurry and that she would find herself_ choking _on the burning guilt of not being able to remember precisely how her laughter sounded_ -)

“Ann?”

But the first memory- Well, it isn’t a memory, for one. 

She’s sure of it.

So _what_ is it? Where does it come from? Is it intentional that she saw it? What is it supposed to show? Is she supposed to understand it? How-

“Ann.”

This time her brain processes the sound of her Captain’s voice, and she lets out a shuddering sigh, turning around to swim closer to him.

This is making her too emotional right now, anyway. She might as well let everything sink in the back of her mind and focus on something else in the time being -and he is a perfect source of distraction.

“I’m here, Captain.”

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

“I’m here, Captain.”

_It doesn’t look like it._

But for once Luffy doesn’t voice his thoughts outloud, and instead watches as she comes up to him and crosses her arms over the rail, stopping the rowboat, legs moving lazily to keep herself afloat.

Half of her body meshed with the darkened surface of the sea, the white of her skin looking nearly transluscent under the moonlight and wet strands of dark hair sticking like black veins over the skin of her round, full face and neck, she looks like some kind of cursed ghost, doomed to wander eternally in the sea.

She looks a bit like how he first saw her -when she saved him.

Her eyes gaze up at him, dark and waiting. ( _She doesn’t seem afraid like she did when he first talked to her, but... tired._ )

He reaches out, finger digging in the soft flesh of her cheek, and smiles when he sees that it doesn’t go through her.

“I thought you’d left.”

“I wouldn’t leave without my clothes when I even resorted to stealing from pirates to get them.” 

He pouts at her in displeasure, and she relents. 

“Stop worrying so much. I might not be as stubborn as you, but it would take something big for me to leave you after accepting to join your crew. It’s important.”

His smile is back, pleased by what he hears. 

_Not as good as a promise to never leave him, but good enough for now. It’s not like he plans to let her go, so he’ll just have to make it so she won’t ever want to leave._

Her gaze has turned faintly annoyed, now, but she doesn’t make any move to swat his hand away as he starts fiddling with her long strands of hair, picking out seaweed here and there.

Luffy likes that about her. How she stays patient and goes along with his antics. 

He knows that if she ever does get angry, it will be important.

His gaze turns downwards, catching movement in her peripheral vision, and he sees her hand moving up slightly, and then freezing.

Before it can fall back, though, he grabs it with his free one.

( _Again, she reminds him of Ace, of how long he spent chasing his brother and throwing his affection at him before the older boy began to reach back, even if only to ruffle his hair._

_Of how long it took for his dumb big brother to understand that it’s_ okay _to reach for him, to touch him -that he won’t hate it or slap his hand away._

_But he has high hopes that it won’t take that long with her. She seems a bit smarter than Ace._ )

Her hand is cold in his, so numb that it doesn’t even feel like a hand. Just a block of ice.

Cold and lifeless.

But then she adjusts her grip and his fingers land just above her pulse point, slow and steady, and when he looks back at her eyes she tilts her head pensively.

His frown fades away.

“Captain.”

He hums.

“I don’t know much about pirates… But a First Mate is important, right?”

“Hmm… Yeah! You’re my right-hand man- uh, woman? Anyway, Shanks’ First Mate is soooooo cool! He has a weird way of using his rifle, though.”

“I see.” Her cold fingers tap over his wrist and he tries not to squeal in laughter at the tickling feeling, sensing that she’s going to talk about something serious. 

**(- _he fits Luffy so well, he’s, like, the perfect First Mate for him!_ )**

“Don’t you think you should wait before appointing me as First Mate? It’s a lot of power, and responsibility. Considering how weak and inexperienced I am, as a pirate, a sailor, and a fighter, I might end up undermining your legitimacy as Captain.”

She stares at their clasped hands as she talks, but there’s no shyness or self-doubt in her voice, just a factual analysis of her capabilities.

He squeezes her hand in a silent demand for her to look him in the eyes, and she does.

“Are you gonna stay weak?”

His voice isn’t upbeat at all anymore, because _this is important_. He likes her, but he can’t take people on his crew whose will will always lose to their lack of confidence. Not when they’re going to go up against the strongest people. He needs people he can trust.

Her plush lips twist into a faintly offended pout.

“I’m not _that_ dumb, you know. I accepted your offer, so that makes me a pirate. I know it means going against the law and its enforcers, and I know I’m too weak for that as of now. I might be scared easily by big changes and risks, but when I commit myself to something, I hate not living up to my and others’ expectations. Besides, while I am no genius, I _can_ work hard.”

He… laughs. 

“Why’re you saying it with so many complicated words, dummy? You could just say no!”

He laughs louder as she looks away, lips twisting further in embarassment.

( _Now she reminds him of Sabo, of his long sentences and his weird words that Luffy never heard before, of how he looked like he turned everything in his mind over and over in the time it took for Ace and him to even understand what was going on._ )

“Hey hey, call me Captain again?”

She raises a brow.

_Is it a kink or something?_

“... Guys?”

They turn to see Coby, half-sitting up and rubbing the last remnants of sleep out of his eyes.

“Ah, sorry Coby.”

“It’s fine, Luffy-san.” He yawns, and turns his gaze to the helm. “Hmm, it doesn’t seem like we’ve veered off the path. Good job, Elynna-san.”

“Take that Captain.”

“You can be my navigator!” Luffy exclaims, not upset in the least.

Elynna heaves herself carefully onto the boat, grabbing her clothes as Coby turns away abruptly, cheeks reddening at the realisation that she’s only wearing a swimming suit.

“ _Hell_ _no_. Being better than you is _not_ the same as having somewhat acceptable navigating skills.” 

“You’re so mean, Ann!”

“Try saying it without laughing and I might consider feeling bad. Why did you say that Shanks’ right-hand man has a weird way of handling his rifle anyway?”

He likes that about her, too. How she seems to pay attention to everything that comes out of his mouth, no matter how off-hand it is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #FTSFact2: When reaching the middle of an episode of the anime, you can see wanted posters flying, carried by the evening’s wind. One of them shows a girl, cheek squished against her arms, that seem to be crossed over a ship’s railing. She’s sleeping, face half-drowned in her hair that has flown everywhere with the wind.  
> (You have to take a picture of her when she’s sleeping or not aware of it, anyway, because she hates posing for pictures even more than she hates pictures themselves.  
> And yes, if she’s in a bad mood, she would absolutely try to guilt-trip you into getting rid of the picture by saying that it’s a very creepy, stalker-ish way of getting someone’s picture… Even if she allowed you to do it in the first place.  
> If she didn’t, she’ll guilt-trip you whether she’s in a bad mood or not, and she’ll feel justified in doing it.)
> 
> This was actually the middle of a chapter, but then when I finished it it was like 15K+ words, so I thought yeah, let’s just make two chapters.
> 
> I hope you all stay safe and happy, and I'd be very glad if anyone wants to talk about this chapter!
> 
> Till next time!


	4. THREE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Elynna contemplates the reality of death, proves that she can make jokes (?), and discovers that she was wrong to think that she can only like an overabundance of energy and excitement in puppies and other fluffy creatures.
> 
> (Spoiler: the latter is entirely Luffy's fault.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hellooooo!
> 
> I hope everyone is doing okay! Holidays are ending for me, so my fanfiction productivity is going to drop… But I still have a few chapters left in stock, so you can wait a bit more before picking up the carrots and the sticks haha.
> 
> Anyway, I want to thank again everyone who read/followed/reviewed/faved! Now I get why some authors go on about this being 50% of their motivation… 
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, so anything that you see in this fic and that you can recognise as belonging to One Piece is not mine. If I did own it, I wouldn’t have to write fanfiction. Duh.

**From The Sea - Dive|rgence**

**THREE**

_Your voice is screaming out your dream, the dream locked in your body and chained to your will,_

_Bright like the sun shining upon the horizon of your future_

_When I_

_Can see nothing on my path,_

_And my hands are clenched so hard but there's_

Nothing

_To hold onto._

_(Tell me,_

_What is my worth here?)_

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

"Finally!" Luffy exclaims, jumping out of the boat as Coby docks it. "You're so great, Coby! We went straight to our destination!"

The boy flushes at the praise and directs a worried frown at him.

"Ah… Luffy-san, you should really find a navigator. You'll never get to the Grand Line if you just wander around. And won't you please reconsider finding other crew members than Zoro the Pirate Hunter?"

"Uh? But I haven't made up my mind about whether he's a bad guy or not yet."

"He's been captured _because_ he's bad, Luffy-san!"

Elynna snorts at that, drawing their attention.

"Where are you going, Ann?" Luffy blinks, confused as he sees her walk in a different direction than the one he took.

"I have some things I want to buy, and I think I saw the sign of a library when we were nearing the island."

"Ah, okay! We'll go eat, then!"

"Sure thing. I'll look for you when I'm done."

She throws a wave of her hand over her shoulder, and turns away.

As she walks in the streets, she ponders what she needs to buy.

Books to learn more about this world, because she's definitely at a disadvantage there. ( _Books and knowledge are reassuring, something she can do, that she_ knows _how to do, unlike all the crazy_ _fights she knows await her_

_-her hands shake, and she feels **cold**._)

And some basic first aid equipment. A must too.

If she has enough money, a few other outfits would also be nice. She'd rather not steal if she can help it, especially not when there is a Marine base just around the corner.

A few looks from passerbys makes her remember that she also doesn't have shoes, since all those in the shed were way too big. Spraining her ankle because of something stupid like the wrong size of shoes is at the very bottom of the things she needs right now. Besides, the skin of her feet is pretty thick and she's used to taking walks barefoot in the middle of rocks, so it's not really an urgent problem, especially since the streets seem pretty clean compared to her hometown.

Eventually, after a few detours, she finds the library she caught a glimpse of before docking, in what looks like one of the main shopping streets of Shells Town.

She dislikes shopping, except maybe when it comes to books, so even if there's not a big crowd, she gets to it quickly.

She enters the book shop first, giving a quiet greeting to the old man behind the counter, and takes a moment to browse the signs above each shelf so as to understand the organisation of the shop.

(- _her stomach twists violently at the words that she cannot read but that somehow make sense in her mind, and no matter how much she loves speaking new languages, she hasn't learned this one, and it feels so_ wrong-)

Her eyes stop on a map of the region that is pinned to the wall, and she takes the time to memorise the name of two islands that are not too close that the townspeople would necessarily know about it, but not too far that coming to Shells Town would be illogical.

She won't go out of her way to give herself an alibi, but if someone asks her, better say that she's on her way to meet a family member rather than tell the truth about how she's a pirate.

Eyes flitting between titles, she walks through the alleys that can fit what she's looking for, until she has piled up a book on basic medical procedures, a school textbook on World History, and a copy of the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia. It might be stored in the shelf on legends and myths, but she knows better after hearing this term so many times from her sister's mouth; it would be stupid to not take it when she's lucky enough to stumble upon a copy, knowing that so many important characters, enemies and allies, are Devil Fruit Users.

It turns out that either the prices on this island are low, or she stole a fairly good amount, because she still has around half of her money left when she comes out of the library. Although, Coby and Luffy also took money from Alvida along with the boat, and gave her a part of it, so she has more than what she took from the shed.

She probably should try to keep some though, since she learnt just that morning about the News Coo selling the World Economy Newspaper to anyone paying for it. Coby looked at her strangely when she asked him why a seagull would wear a cap and carry a satchel, but the fact that Luffy didn't know about this word's version of a mailman either -then got excited and tried to catch one of them- fortunately shifted his attention away from her unnatural lapse of knowledge.

She takes less time in the drugstore and the clothes shop, being less tempted to browse once she has everything she needs, and goes back to the boat. She doesn't have a place to change clothes right now, but she stuffs an outfit in her bag anyway, along with the medical textbook, a bottle of disinfectant, and a roll of bandage, before putting the rest under the tarpaulin that Alvida and her men kindly provided them with on top of the boat.

Once relatively sure that they won't be stolen, she sits down, takes out the notebook and pen that crossed over the world in her rucksack and, just in case there is a conscious entity behind this really, really _bad_ trip, she writes a letter and dumps it in the sea -since that's where she comes from:

"To Whoever-The-Hell-Is-Watching,

You got the wrong person. This entire clusterfuck of a joke was on the Christmas List of my sister. Not _mine_. Do have the generosity to rectify this.

~~Fuck y~~ _Thank_ you in advance."

She watches the piece of paper sink in the sea, and comes back to the main street just in time to spot Coby and Luffy walking in the opposite direction, the latter holding his stomach as he chortles.

"Something funny happened?"

"Ah, Ann! Yeah, we went to an interesting restaurant! People were jumping around for no reason, it was so funny!"

She hums, looking at Coby's anxious face.

"You don't seem to find it that funny, Coby-san."

"Well, it's strange… They did it when we said Roronoa Zoro's name, which I could understand. He might have been captured, but considering his reputation it's normal for people to be afraid that he could escape. But they also did it when I said the name of the Marine Captain who is in charge of this base…"

"Maybe he did something bad?" Luffy shrugs, not seeming particularly interested.

"Impossible!"

"Why?"

"Wh- What do you mean 'why', Elynna-san?"

"First off, I don't think it's normal for them to react like that at Zoro's name either. He's a pirate hunter, which basically means he's supposed to side with the government. As for that Marine, well... You can find scum everywhere, whether inside governments or in a seedy town."

"That's not-"

( _He must be at least fifteen, and she doesn't know if she resents him or envies him for still being able to see the world in such stark contrast of black and white at that age._

_She grinds her teeth together, and remind herself of the bruises on his skin and the terror in his eyes, reminds herself that Marines must have been his only hope during all this time he has spent with Alvida and her crew, reminds herself that Luffy is probably the first nice pirate he has ever met-_

_But she can't chase away the thought that no matter what world you're in, humans are always the same, and it drowns her in ashes, makes her mind dark and heavy and so, so_ **tired** , _because no matter how many times she tell herself that they, that_ she _can be good, it's never enough to turn her away from the bad-_ )

Her shoulders slouch, hand rubbing absently at her temples.

"Look, Coby-san. I don't think you'll be able to convince me I'm wrong on this just with words when you don't even know what is actually happening."

"Well, let's just go to the base then! We have to meet Zoro, and Coby has to follow his dream anyway!" Luffy decides, crossing his arms behind his head nonchalantly.

"Hmm… You do that."

"Eh? You're not coming?"

She rubs harder at her temples. This street is more animated with the lunch hour, and all the noise is doubled by whatever translation trick is going on in her mind.

_(It feels like there's a wall of noise between her and this world, like she can understand no one and no one can understand her, like she can't_ reach _anyone, leaving her all alone in the middle of this crowd_ -)

Her hand is snatched away from her temple by another hand, and she knows from the texture of the skin whose it is, even before opening her eyes again and meeting the dark, concerned gaze of her Captain.

"Ann. Are you okay?" He frowns, looking annoyed that he can't immediately guess the source of her discomfort and beat it into a pulp.

It makes a hint of amusement fizzle through her, but she's too tired to do anything more than smile politely, which she knows he dislikes, so she doesn't.

His voice is low, but somehow breaks straight through the wall, and his hand is so _real_ in hers-

" _I'm fine, just a bit tired_."

She makes to take back her hand, but suddenly Luffy clamps both his hands around it, and now his eyes look positively _starry_.

She blinks, confused.

"What is it?"

"Elynna-san… Did you just speak another language? I couldn't understand what you were saying."

_Shit_.

She curses herself internally for not noticing that the sudden surge in noise, after what little time she had to get used to this, made her switch back to the mother tongue that is ringing inside her brain as the surrounding conversations are being translated.

Except she's pretty sure that everyone in this world, no matter which island you go to, speaks the same language -an illogical but necessary premise for the Straw Hats' adventures to happen.

_She is such an idiotic, careless little imbecile-_

"Ah, that… Well, my island doesn't have much contact with the outside, apart from the merchants who go out from time to time to buy what we can't make ourselves. So there are several dialects that developed in the different regions, even though everyone speaks the universal language."

_Please, please, please, don't ask questions-_

"That's. So. _Cool_! Hey, hey, can you teach me?!"

Luffy's eyes have somehow lit up even more and can now probably serve as spotlights. His smile is wide like only a rubberman's smile can be, but she's pretty sure the brightness and childish excitement in it is just him, and _oh hell, since when does she find this kind of thing this adorable?_

"We can try, I guess." Her gaze turns to the sky in thought. "It could even become some kind of secret code in case we need one-"

She doesn't immediately understand what happens then, because the next moment she finds herself with an armful of Monkey D. Luffy, arms locked around her neck and legs coiled around her waist, squeezing her enthusiastically and babbling and laughing in her ear about _we're gonna go on secret spying missions, so cool!_ and _you're so great, Ann!_

Before she can actually realise what is going on, he slides back down, tells her to go wait for them at the Food Foo restaurant they went to earlier, and then drags Coby away, disappearing around the corner in a cloud of dust.

Leaving behind a dazed Elynna, trying to remember when was the last time someone hugged her like this, apart from one of her grandmothers and the occasional embrace from her parents.

( _She can't find anything, and her whole self_ aches _to hold him against her again._ )

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

Elynna does as Luffy told her and goes to the restaurant, telling the owner that she's waiting for two other friends so that she can get a table. She orders a glass of water and a dish of pasta, since she hasn't eaten anything since that one apple before they were swept in a freaking whirpool of all things, and takes out the medical textbook. Reading has never failed to draw all of her attention, fading the surrounding sounds into a faint buzzing noise at most, and that's exactly what she needs right now.

She's carefully scanning the pictures explaining the process of how to do and change dressings, on various parts of a body and with several types of wounds, all the while chewing on the last remnants of her meal, when the call of her name brings her attention back to the people around her.

Raising her gaze from the pages in front of her, she watches as Luffy sits down beside her, eyeing the sauce that is still covering her plate with great interest, while Coby brings a little girl with dirty clothes and tear tracks on her cheeks to the owner, who begins to fuss over her with hushed whispers and frantic touches.

"How did it go?"

"That Zoro guy is super strong! He's been tied up for three weeks without food! I would've died in three days." Luffy laughs loudly, leaning more and more out of his chair and towards his First Mate, hand creeping towards her plate.

Elynna pushes him away by his shoulder, and slides her plate towards him. His eyes sparkle, and with a loud _thanks Ann!_ , he sets about blithely running his finger all over the plate and licking the sauce off of it with a cheerful, pleased smile.

Her fingers twitch, and she wants ( _so **bad**_ ) to run her fingers through his hair -she's never seen hair that looks _that_ soft- and hug him or even just lean against him ( _because in that moment she feels so_ cold _inside_ _, so **numb-**_ ).

But he's busy, and _you can't just touch people like that out of the blue, you creep. He barely knows you, are you_ trying _to get him to kick you out of the crew and leave you to find your way home on your own?_

So she presses her fingers flat on the cover of her book, and stays put.

"You were right, Elynna-san." Coby laments as he joins them.

Her eyes on him is all it takes to prompt him to recount the story of how they met Zoro and the little girl, how she told them that Zoro was the nice one in this case, and how much the Marine Captain's son's behaviour crushed, crumpled and tore apart the pretty picture of the Marines in Coby's head.

Elynna fidgets in her seat with a slight frown. Yes, she disliked Coby's foolish view of the world -in her opinion, but that doesn't mean that she wants him to suddenly lose faith in the human race -and himself in the process- or anything.

( ~~ _She doesn't want him to become like her._~~ )

Although meeting Luffy would probably prevent that.

"It's not because one Captain seems to be a bastard that all Marines are, you know. And if you become one, it will be one more good Marine, right?"

"Hm, y-yeah, I guess you're right." Coby chuckles shyly, cheeks reddened in pleased embarassment as he rubs the back of his neck.

Luffy's eyes bounce between the two of them, and he hums in satisfaction.

"Anyway, I've decided to take him in my cr- Annnnn, what ar' 'ou doin'?!"

Chin nestled in one hand, she tugs at the cheek that she's pinching between with the other, although not enough that it becomes too apparent that Luffy's flesh is elastic.

"Captain, you might be the one who takes the final decision, but every choice you make will affect your crew, so it would be best to at least ask for everyone's opinion before deciding, unless we're in the middle of a fight. Otherwise it's called being a tyrant or a dictator, and they're usually not very good examples of a leader. Besides, everyone has different strengths and weaknesses, so a crewmember might think about something that you didn't consider."

Her Captain crosses his arms, eyebrows furrowing thoughtfully as he stares at her.

Then he beams.

She lets go of his face -stopping herself just in time from patting his cheek.

"Okay! I don't wanna be a ditac- didac- dicda-"

"Dictator."

"Yeah, that. I still want Zoro to join us, though."

"That's fine, I'm not asking you to be selflessness personified or anything."

"So if I bring you to him so you can meet him, it's alright?"

"Yes."

"Great, let's go the-"

"I want a table for myself, I'm in the mood for a free feast!"

She has little doubt that the motherfucker who is currently bullying a citizen to give up his seat is anyone other than the Marine Captain's son she heard about a few minutes ago.

If he's not, that means there are two top-level motherfuckers in this town with a powerful father behind them, which would suck for such a small island.

She presses her lips together as she watches him brag loudly and push everyone around, watches how the hands of the little girl's mother are trembling as she brings him food that she bought but won't get any money for, watches the civilians cower and one of the boy's Marine bodyguards clench his fists and screw his eyes shut.

She thinks that villains can be put into two categories.

There are those who use their strength, their looks, their brain -whatever- to gain power, make people suffer or whatever villains are supposed to do. As much as they can make her stomach roll around beneath her skin until she's sick, she can at least respect their strength ( _physical or otherwise_ ).

And then there is _this_ kind of villain. The kind who have nothing to do on the top of society, shouldn't be able to get there, let alone _stay_ there, but who do anyway because the powerful ones find them useful, or can't be bothered to take them down.

She _hates_ those. Cannot even respect them, because she rarely finds anything worthy of respect in them -as far as she's concerned.

( _She thinks it's a good thing that she wasn't granted some crazy power when dropped in this world, because she doesn't know if she would be able to stop herself from crushing him until he can only crawl on the floor and beg._

_She can't really say why or how exactly apart from the socially acceptable moral compass, but that part of her is probably important to protect._ )

When you're weak, you either lay low or get stronger. How can he think that no one will ever come to knock him down when he's so weak and there are so many strong people here? That no one will ever be desperate enough to stop caring about his money when it can't stop them from slashing his neck open?

_Then again, he doesn't seem very smart to begin with. Not that kind of smarts, anyway._

"Bring me my meal hotter! Do you want to be like Roronoa Zoro? I'm going to publicly execute him in three days, that will remind you lot who gives orders around here."

Elynna waves her hand towards him and mouth ' _that_ is a dictator'.

But Luffy barely reacts to her words, already getting to his feet.

"Three days? You said he had a month."

_Ah_.

She forgot that one doesn't need to be desperate to stop caring about money or status.

One can also be fucking _crazy_.

… _At least he's adorable._

_And not the serial killer kind of crazy. Always a bonus._

"Who are you? So rude. If you must know, I was only joking. Why would I let him go when he had the gall to hit me?!"

Annnnnnd he gets hit. Again.

Elynna throws her head back with a groan as Coby jumps out of his chair to try and hold back her Captain, whose hand is still fisted in the fabric of the Motherfucker Number One's shirt.

She sighs, and gets up.

People are screaming and running out of the restaurant -perhaps in an effort to not be associated with the events.

The two Marines are screaming questions at their Captain's son, fussing over him, while _he_ is screaming threats at Luffy.

Who is also on the receiving end of Coby's screams of _calm down Luffy-san!_ and _you'll get into trouble with the Marines!_

She wants to scoff, because they are pirates anyway, and she's pretty sure being a pirate is enough to get into trouble with the Marines.

She slides between Luffy and his temporary punching bag, fingers sliding around the former's wrist as she hides the latter from his view.

He lets go, gaze locking with hers.

His face is blank, but his eyes are like boiling clouds and the clap of thunder, brimming with a violence eager to burst forth.

She thinks it kind of suits him, but she still prefers it when he's being adorable, so when his stare slides back to Motherfucker Number One, she takes a step closer to shift her attention back to him.

"Captain. What's the point of hitting him when we can just go untie Zoro right now?"

His lips twist into a frown, before he casts a last glare at the blonde guy who is being carried away, and allows the tension and anger to leave his body. His face is still blank, though, and the tempest still brewing.

"Fine. He's not worth punching, anyway."

She hums in amusement.

"That too."

Luffy smiles a bit, although there is still an edge to it that makes it vaguely unsettling, and reaches down to take the hat that flew off with his momentum.

Coby's sigh of relief is loud in the suddenly silent restaurant.

Elynna is about to release her Captain's wrist to get back to her seat and grab her rucksack… Except Luffy snatches her hand out of the blue and starts dragging her behind him.

"Let's go get our new nakama!"

She opens her mouth to ask him -politely- to let go, but then she sees that he's smiling that sunny smile again, all teeth and gums and puppy-like excitement, and she closes her mouth again.

_Damnit_.

In the end, she just grabs her backpack on the way out and follows her Captain, hand still clasped into his.

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

Zoro tears himself away from memories of a girl whose tears shone bitterly under the moonlight when he hears footsteps, only for him to come face to face with the weird kid from earlier, marching up to him hand in hand with a girl that he hasn't seen before.

His eyes shift back to the brat, who throws his free hand up in greeting.

"Yo!"

"Back again? I already told you: I don't plan to become a pirate."

"I'm Luffy!" The kid goes on, lips stretching into a wide smile that looks a bit... off -too wide. "How about I help you with these ropes and you join us?"

"Didn't you hear me?!" Zoro barks.

_Is the kid sent by Helmeppo as a new type of torture or something?_

_Because he sure is annoying enough for that._

Said kid turns to the slightly taller girl who came to a stop beside him.

"He's great, isn't he?"

Her answer is blunt as can be.

"He's mostly pissed off. And unconvinced."

Zoro snorts. At least one of them is actually listening to him.

"Damn right. I have things I need to do, and no desire to become a criminal."

The kid tilts his head with a face of confused frustration.

"Everyone already thinks you're a bad guy anyway. Why do you care?"

"I don't give a shit what society says. I never did anything I regretted, and it's not going to change!"

"... You know you just conceded his point, right?" The girl points out with a raised eyebrow.

Zoro shoots her a glare too, because now she's being equally annoying.

"Anyway, I'm not becoming a pirate."

He almost thinks he has convinced the guy -Luffy, but then he puffs out his cheeks and crosses his arms stubbornly.

"Don't care! You're going to join me!"

"Don't decide by yourself, damnit!"

Now it's the girl's time to snort, and she's rewarded by another glare.

"You don't mind Ann, right?"

"No objection here. You just have to convince him though, otherwise he'll find a way to escape at some point."

"Hmm… You use a katana, right?"

Zoro pauses, eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Yeah…"

"Where is it right now?" He glances around, as if Zoro's katanas would suddenly appear in the yard.

"That bastard took everything I had. After my life, it's my most precious treasure."

"Treasure?!" He perks up. "Okay, then I'm gonna get it back for you!"

"Uh?"

"But if you want me to give it to you, you'll have to join us!"

"The hell?!"

The girl snorts in approval, the sound clearly amused even though her face doesn't change, and making Luffy beam up at her with satisfaction.

"I'm going then!"

"Oi! The base is the other way around, dumbass!"

Seriously, how can he get lost when the building is just _right there_?! Besides, there's nothing more ugly on the whole damn island.

_..._

_Wait-_

_Did his arms just stretch?!_

The weight of someone's gaze brings his attention away from where the kid disappeared.

The girl is still there.

His eyes narrow.

She has dark hair and pale skin -like _her_ , but the similarity ends here. There are hints of green in her hair, and her body is too chubby. Her skin is too pale ( _like a ghost_ ) and her eyes are too flat, too distant ( _even though_ she _was serious,_ she _was like an open book_ ).

She -Ann?- crosses her arm and shifts her weight on her left leg, staring at him pensively.

"Why did you accept?"

"Why did I accept what?" He asks gruffly, because he doesn't have the patience to deal with cryptic questions when he just got tricked by a kid who looks for all the world like he's completely dumb.

The polite smile slides easily on her face in reaction to his tone, like an automatic reflex.

"Ah, sorry. I was wondering why you accepted an honour-based deal from someone like that motherfucker."

He almost chokes on nothing.

And here he thought she started to sound more polite.

"What did you just call him."

"I was never told his name, and I don't think I would care to remember it either." She shrugs carelessly.

"How does it matter what kind of guy he is?"

She tilts her head, as if contemplating whether to answer ( _but it also looks as if she's contemplating how much of an idiot he is, and it pisses him off_ ).

"He doesn't give a damn about honour. He was going to have you executed in a few days."

For a moment, he can hear nothing but the violent thumping of his blood through him, and his fingers twitch, itching for his blades so he can sink them in this bastard's body, limbs suddenly alight with the need for violence -despite the numbness that settled after the excruciating pain caused by their constant immobility and this _motherfucker_ 's blows.

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

She remembers three katana and green hair.

But seeing him - _really_ \- for the first time, the first thing that she notices is his eyes.

Slits of steely grey, that make her _feel_ consciouly all of her weaknesses, despite the fact that he's the one tied up and running on an empty stomach.

And now they glint like blades, so much so that she shifts her weight back on both feet in case she needs to run, even though she knows that she's not the one these eyes are for ( _even though she knows that if she were, there is nothing she can do to prevent him from killing her_ ).

His lips pull back into something that she's pretty sure is _not_ supposed to qualify as a smile, the aggressive tilt of it setting her even more on edge.

"Elynna-san!"

Coby's scream almost makes her jump out of her skin.

"Coby-san."

She watches as he runs up to Zoro and starts to fiddle with the ropes holding up his arm.

"What are you doing? It won't take long for the Marines to see you and come down." The swordsman warns, murderous intent reined in.

"I can't stand this kind of Marines! I'm going to enroll, but I won't become like them, just like I know that Luffy-san won't become a bad person despite his dream of becoming the Pirate King!"

Zoro sputters at that.

"Yeah, I was surprised too, but he really means it! Maybe that's why he wasn't afraid to hit Helmeppo when he said he would have you executed!"

Elynna feels Zoro's eyes shift back to her, but for the first time since he has met Luffy there is something in his eyes… interest.

_So that's how he was convinced_.

She sighs as Coby groans in despair at the still untied knot.

"Coby-san. Step aside."

"Wha-"

She walks up to the swordsman, unsheathes the knife that is tied at her hip, and gets to work cutting the ropes. She feels the weight of Zoro's gaze on her, and this time when he talks his voice is calmer.

"Why does someone like you follow him?"

She pauses, and looks up from the rope tied around his stomach, aware that he is trying to gauge Luffy's worth further through her answer.

_"He just might be my only ticket home, so I'm clinging to him as hard as I came, without caring how far down I'm dragging him."_

Uh. Telling the truth is probably a bad idea.

"He asked me to join him when we were stuck on the verge of a whirlpool so, you know, I was a bit more concerned with saving my life than what was coming out of his mouth… More seriously though, he might be brash and stupid when it comes to some things, but he's got what it takes to make a good Captain -including honour. Besides," she steps back and puts away her knife, ready to raise her arms in case the swordsman needs a moment to regain his balance after three weeks in the same position. "He's going to give you back what you treasure most after your life. Whether you join the crew or not, you might as well pay back your debt and help us get out of here, right?"

Zoro grumbles something about _manipulative little shits_ under his breath, but sighs in defeat.

"Fine. I owe you that, I guess."

And that's when a group of Marines rush in the yard and they find themselves surrounded by the dark, bloodthirsty mouths of a dozen rifles.

"The rest of you, surround the base! Don't let that brat with the straw hat escape!"

"Yes, Sir!"

The man she assumes to be the infamous Motherfucker Number T- uh, Marine Captain steps behind his soldiers, and starts talking to Zoro, but Elynna is too busy wondering how he can move his elbow when that huge axe has been shoved in his arm like that and _is he trying to compensate for something? Because considering how huge that thing is, she doesn't want to see how small is his-_

"You little _bitch_!"

She blinks, and sees veins popping furiously all over the Motherf- Marine Captain's face.

_Oops_?

"... Did I say that out loud?"

A few Marines nod furiously.

_Fuck._

She didn't think Luffy's absence of a brain-to-mouth filter was contagious.

( _And here she thought she would always be trying to find her words in an effort to not offend anyone, that she would always be trying to guess what people_ _want her to say-_ )

"My innocence is lost. Forever." She raises a mocking brow at Zoro's groan.

"What innocence? You killed a damn puppy."

"It was a wolf, and it was attacking a little girl! Whose side are you on, damnit?!"

She flips her hair nonchalantly.

"Ehhh, still undecided. You have green hair, and at least this guy is blonde, but I think his haircut is just ugly enough to give you an advantage."

"That's your criteria?! And that's not just your opinion, that's a fact!"

"Discrimination." She claims with a disapproving twist of her lips.

"Aaaah?!" He eyes her threateningly.

"Elynna-san… Your hair is green too." Coby tries to intervene.

She… forgot that.

"... Nah, it's blue. Definitely blue."

"No no, it's green."

"Go check your glasses, four-eyes." Coby recoils at this one despite her unchanged tone, looking unsure whether this is still supposed to be teasing.

"Discrimination yourself!" Zoro barks in exasperation, but she's too busy crossing her arms, nails clawing at her skin because _goddamnit, what the fuck is she doing, loosening her tongue around people she barely knows, when even her family can't take the acid that curls inside her mouth sometimes?_

"What are you doing?! Kill this bunch of clowns already! I will not let anyone who insults my greatness walk out of here alive!"

Coby's breaths are coming in short gasps, and he's starting to cry.

Zoro is crouched down, ready to spring out of the way and _survive_ until Luffy comes with his katanas ( _because he_ cannot _die here, when he still hasn't fulfilled their promise, when he still isn't the greatest, when he still has so many people he must_ beatbeatbeat-)

Elynna… Is just standing there. Staring at the rifles. Waiting. She doesn't move, doesn't make a sound.

Even if this body is adapted to the physiology of this world like she thinks, she doesn't have the experience to get herself out of a bullet's way, let alone a dozen's.

This… Is out of her hands. There is absolutely _nothing_ she can do.

Even though, when her vision is filled with a lean back dressed in red, arms spread like a shield, and a straw hat perched on a mess of soft-looking, black strands, when Luffy's unique, smug laughter booms in her ears over the stupefied silence that follows his entrance, she finds herself breathing out a shuddering breath.

Seems like she's not completely indifferent towards the end of her own existence yet.

A shrink would probably say it's a good thing.

( ~~ _She's not particularly convinced either way._~~ )

Luffy turns around and flashes a smile her way, supremely unconcerned with the bunch of armed Marines behind him.

"I didn't know which katana was yours, so I brought them all. Which is it?"

"All three. I use the Three Swords Style." Zoro huffs. _Is the guy almost late on purpose or something?_ He can already tell that this one is going to be a handful.

At least he won't be the First Mate, so he can just dump all the responsibilities on the girl.

"Really?! That's so cool!" Luffy is almost drooling at the idea of the tricks his new crewmate will show him. "So then, since you don't want to die here, are you going to run away without your katanas? Or are you going to resist the Marines with us and become an outlaw?"

"Are you guys demons?" Zoro scoffs, but he's smirking excitedly when he holds out his hand. "Well, whatever. Just give me my katanas. I'll join you."

"Yay! See, Ann? We've got a new nakama!"

_Please stop being so cute. I'd rather keep my heart numb for now._

"That's great and all, Captain, but we're kind of about to die here." Elynna points out with a wave of her hand towards the Marines running up to them, swords in hand.

"Ah, yeah."

Obviously having no intention to get involved in this fight if she can help it, she shuffles behind her two crewmates and settles beside Coby, punctuating his fanboy running commentary with 'ow, _that_ must hurt's and 'wow's in the right places while checking her nails -she should probably cut them considering their state after two days spent running around and playing pirates.

Then something cold is pressed against her temple, and she feels her spine go ramrod straight when she realises that _fucking hell, is Motherfucker Number One pointing a goddamn gun at her right now?!_

Yes, yes he is.

Coby gasps from her other side.

Yeah, he's seeing it too. She's definitely not dreaming.

... Okay, so she probably shouldn't look at her nail during a fight next time.

"Wait!"

Her Captain doesn't listen, and punches Motherfucker Number Two again anyway.

"I told you to wait, you idiot! Don't move, or I'll shoot!" He pushes the canon of the gun further, until she has to tilt her head on the side. "If any of you move, I will blow that bitch's brains out!"

… _At least he recognises she has brains_.

She almost laughs at the hysterical thought, but stops herself in time -it would be just her luck that laughing would startle him and make him pull the trigger accidentally. Judging from how much he's shaking everywhere, he doesn't seem to be very sure of what he's doing, after all. Not that she blames him. She's never even hit someone with the intent to hurt before, let alone kill -or torture.

As for dying…

( _She wonders if letting him give a new paint job to the courtyard with the content of her head would take her home._

_She's not_ supposed _to be here, after all._

_And no matter what Luffy said before_ , he fits Luffy so well, he's, like, the perfect First Mate for him! _is still echoing in her head, and she knows that Zoro is_ made _to be better than her at this job._

_It's tempting._

_No one cares enough about her yet for her death to have much of an impact on the timeline, and even though Luffy's smile kind of makes her heart melt, she doesn't care enough about anyone here -yet- to feel guilty about letting herself go_ ~~_like she would in her own world_ ~~ _._

_She's always been the type to give up as soon as she can't see an immediate solution to her problem, anyway._

_Except-_

_Except she didn't come here by dying. What if there's another way? What if she just… dies? Without seeing her family again, when she already doesn't know the consequences of her disappearance in her own world?_

_Except she_ has _a solution, in the form of two -frankly scarily strong- guys, for whom she knows honour and nakama are important._

_Except-_ )

Her lips part.

"Ah… Could someone save me? I mean, I'm totally willing to die for your dream and all, Captain." She jabs her thumb towards her aggressor. "But if I die at the hands of an idiot like Motherfucker Number One here, I'll be so ashamed I'll die a second time."

… _Ah, she opened her fucking mouth again, didn't she?_

She really should stop.

Although it would really help if this world would stop putting her into crazy situations with crazy people. The 'hey I wonder what wil happen if I push that big red button?' kind of crazy.

So she sighs, joins her hands together, and adds a 'pretty please'.

She has to compensate for the fact that she just called someone Motherfucker to their face, after all -although it's not her fault that she has yet to be told this guy's name.

( _Denial and blaming others have always been fine talents of hers._ )

"Elynna-san…" Coby whimpers.

Zoro blinks in surprise, and smirks.

Luffy bursts out laughing as he walks towards her, aiming his punch without a care for the Motherfucker Number Two who is raising his axe behind his back.

"Okay, Ann! I got it!"

"Hey! I told you to not move! Stop, or I shoot!"

"Go ahead! I'll save her anyway!"

He does.

And he and Zoro win.

As the entirety of the Marine corps rejoice over the defeat of their superior and she's trying to make herself move ( _she thinks she just might be in shock_ ), her attention is drawn to her new -she searches for the term that has no translation in her own language- nakama as he walks up to her, bringing his blades back into their sheaths.

"For a criminal, you're pretty weak, you know."

"Because I couldn't save myself? Well I've never had to fight before, and I certainly didn't think I would end up being a pirate, so there. Since it irritates you so much, I'll enlist you to help me with my training."

He scoffs, but now there's approval in the slant of his smirk. "Fine by me."

And just like that he crashes right into her when she _still_ can't move, and she knocks Luffy on the way down because _of course he chose that moment to walk up to her_.

Fuck manga logic.

"Raaaaaah, I can't breeeeeathe." Luffy wheezes from under her. Loudly.

_Yeah, well me neither, but thanks for being a great cushion._

"What I have in fat he has twice in muscles. It's his fault."

"I don't caaaaaare. Get uuuuuuup!"

She sighs, but it almost sounds like a laugh.

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

When they finally drag Zoro's body back to Food Foo, its owner is very happy to let them eat as much as they want, and the villagers are very happy to pay for at least a part of it. Because let's face it, Elynna is not sure they have enough money to pay for a guy in his late teens who hasn't eaten in three weeks and, you know… **Luffy**.

( _It takes a_ long _time to drag him back. A_ very _long time. And Zoro is_ very _lucky that all these muscles saved her life and make him look sexy, because otherwise she wouldn't do her share of work, or at least not without a_ lot _of complaints._ )

When the mother of the little girl -Rika- turns to her to take her order, she shakes her head.

"I've already eaten earlier. Although it would be great if you could prepare some food for us that we can take with us when we leave, if you have the time to make it while taking care of these two. But… Um, would it be possible to borrow someone's bathroom? I kind of would like to freshen up…"

"Oh, of course! My daughter and I live just on the second floor. The bathroom's door is the lavender one, and there are towels in the left drawer under the sink. Feel free to use whatever you need."

Elynna's shoulders slouch in relief. Taking a dive in the sea helped, but it clearly isn't the same as taking a shower.

_Being a pirate is okay, but not becoming a pig, thank you very much._

She thanks the woman, and rushes up the stairs with her backpack.

The shower feels _really_ nice, and she makes sure to scrub all the dirt and sweat and salt that accumulated on her skin, under her feet and in her hair before she comes out.

She slips on her still slightly wet swimming suit -since they will probably set sail again today- and into loose, raw denim jeans that sit low on her hips before putting on the basic, yellow t-shirt that is one or two sizes too big -the way she likes them.

She gives up tucking it in halfway through, and throws the heavy weight of her still-wet hair into a loose mess of curls on the top of her head.

When she looks in the mirror, she nods at her reflection in approval. Without the darkness of her hair flowing around her too-pale face and with the bright colour of her top, she looks a bit less like a ghost ( _and the shower makes her feel a bit more human_ ).

She tries to wash the old Marine uniform as best as she can in the sink, and uses the hairdryer to take out most of the humidity, before she deems it good enough. It wasn't in great shape to begin with, and besides she just wants something to cover herself, not attend the Fashion Week.

When she comes back down the stairs, she's greeted with Coby's life story and how thankful he is to her crewmates for teaching him to stand up for himself and his dreams.

She feels her cheeks burn in mortification, and she squirms, uncomfortable.

_She will never understand how some people can blurt out all their thoughts and feelings in a public space -or at all really- like this._

Without looking at him, she crosses the room quickly and throws herself in a chair at the boys' table, fingers reaching for the last sticks of dried vegetables that Zoro didn't eat, dipping them in the sauce before popping them in her mouth to give herself the time to regain her composure.

"Ah, Elynna-san! Luffy-san and Zoro-san want to head for the Grand Line without any more preparation! Please stop them! It's not known as the Pirates' Graveyard for nothing, this is too reckless!"

She nods gratefully at the glass of water that is brought to her, and gulps down a mouthful as she sifts through what little knowledge she has on the timeline. Even though it's spotty at best, her memory is good enough that she remembers the Straw Hats' entrance into the Grand Line as vaguely important. Something about crossing a _moutain_ to get there -however _that_ 's supposed to work.

The point being, she's pretty sure that there are at least a couple more crew members by the time this moment rolls around.

"Well, we don't have a navigator, so we're probably going to get lost anyway. We just might meet some more people that fit the Captain's criteria on the way there."

"That's true… But still-"

"You should worry for yourself." Zoro cuts in. "No matter how unwillingly, you've sided with two different groups of pirates already. You shouldn't underestimate the Marines' capability to gather information. If you enlist, they'll learn about it sooner or later." He leaves Coby to mull over that particular fact, and turns to his Captain. "Anyway, how many are we on that crew of yours?"

"Three for now!" Luffy exclaims, looking absurdly proud of himself ( _does she need to mention that of course it's adorable too?_ ).

"W- Wait! You mean…" Zoro successively points at the three of them, incredulous.

"Yep. The Captain is aiming for quality over quantity."

"Flattery will lead you nowhere." He gripes, obviously still feeling betrayed despite the fact that they didn't say anything about a big crew.

She shrugs, unbothered.

His eyes narrow suddenly, and he leans forward in his seat.

"And our ship? Where is it?"

His gaze is helpfully directed through the window and to the rowboat moored in the port.

"Luffy-san was born with no planning skills." Coby concludes.

The Marines enter on that note to -politely- kick them out, and Elynna gets up with a sigh ( _she just sat down damnit_ ) to collect the little food their host had the time to prepare, thanking her once again.

She finds herself thinking how strangely easy it is to abruptly leave for an unkown destination, even for her, who loves control so much that she plans her days ahead even during holidays.

Then again, she's not alone, and she's not leaving anything or anyone behind that she is particularly attached to.

( _In the end, everything she owns here fits into her rucksack and the boat._

_Well, she's not leaving anything or anyone that she can reach, anyway-_

_and whether in Shells Town of the middle of the East Blue, her family and her world don't feel any closer._ )

Clearly though, she was right to tell Zoro that their Captain is not entirely dumb.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I try not to write anything canon that isn't necessary, especially if it's not funny... Well, you got to know a bit more of Elynna's personality here, and she does have a sense of humour, yay!  
> Although a pretty dark/offensive one, admittedly. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but that's not gonna change so...  
> I hope you liked this chapter, and that everything will be good for you and your loved ones until the next update!


	5. FOUR

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Zoro isn't nearly as sure of how to feel about his First Mate as he is about his Captain.
> 
> Also, Nami.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! Here is the newest chapter. And the longest one yet.
> 
> Thank you to everyone who read & reviewed so far (it really is a pleasure), and without further ado...
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, so anything that you see in this fic and that you can recognise as belonging to One Piece is not mine. If I did own it, I wouldn’t have to write fanfiction. Duh.

**From The Sea - Dive|rgence**

  
  


**FOUR**

  
  


_You aren’t kind,_

_(not really, or you wouldn’t be able_

_to wear a smile so violent_

_and drench your voice and fists in others’ blood_

_like this)_

_But there is something in you,_

_something disugusting_

_in the sincerity of your smile_

_in the reliable line of your shoulders_

_in the wholeness of your attention_

_(And I so dearly hate_

_the way I cannot despise you on sight)_

  
  


**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

Her Captain is lucky to be such a deep sleeper, because she is _so_ glaring at him right now.

Well… Honestly, it’s her fault. They divided the night in three time slots for the watch. She chose the last one, both because she is an early riser and because she has yet to learn to read the time in the sky, and she completely forgot who exactly she was travelling with… which means that when Luffy woke her up in the early hours of the morning for her shift -by falling dead asleep on top of her and almost giving her a heart attack in the process, she discovered ( _oh joy_ ) that the stock of food she managed to gather in Shells Town was thouroughly raided during the night.

Her stomach growls again, and when her eyes sweep across the blue expanse surrounding them, well she sees nothing. _Again_.

… Yeah, that was a stupid, thoughtless move on her part.

But now that she experienced it once, she’s pretty sure that it won’t happen again if she has a say in it ( _although it’s a small comfort right now, because she loves her breakfast, damnit_ ).

Her eyes turn back to the newspaper of the day. There are a lot of places and people whose name don’t ring a bell, but if there is one thing good about newspapers, it is that they usually give that information at some point in the article, even when every reader probably knows it.

_Also, the flying postmen (and women, she hopes) are_ very _cute_.

She’s looking at the wanted posters inserted in the newspaper when Zoro wakes up with a loud yawn.

“Mind passing me some food? I’m starving.”

She gestures vaguely with her foot in the direction of their Captain.

“He ate just about everything for his midnight snack.”

...

“Ow! Zoro! What was that for?!”

That earns him another fist upside the head.

She knew it was worth waiting. She certainly can’t hit as hard as Zoro.

“Annnnnn! Help meeee!”

“I really don’t see what the problem is.” Elynna hums in perfect dishonesty, still hidden behind her newspaper.

Luffy's final cry for help morphs into an unintelligible gurgling sound.

_Revenge is sweet._

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

“This one.”

“ _Fish_!”

“Good. That one?”

“ ** _Meat_**!” The emphasis is particularly strong there.

“Nice.” 

She points to another picture of the newspaper’s article on a culinary contest.

“... _Cakey_?”

“ _Cake_.” She repeats, trying very, _very_ hard not to laugh.

The Japanese accent in English is about as hilarious as the French one -but less irritating.

Her finger lands on yet another part of the picture.

“Sake!”

“We have sake?”

“Go back to sleep, Zoro-san. Not exactly, Captain.”

“Ah, beel- beew?”

“ _Beer_.”

“ _Beer_.” He repeats with great focus.

( _It_ really _shouldn’t be this cute._ )

“The last try was perfect.”

“Yay! I got them all!”

Her smile is polite, dull, and meaningless -just the way he hates it.

“You also _ate_ them all.”

His arms fall back down, and he flops forward until his head bonks on the newspaper displayed between the two of them.

She wants a fucking medal for resisting the urge to run her fingers through his hair, especially when they tickle her hand that is still on the page like that and _oh my gawd, how can they be_ this _soft_ -

“I’m hungryyyyyyy…”

Ah, yeah. She’s supposed to be pissed off. Right.

“Really?” She makes her smile extra plastic, just in case he looks up. “What a coincidence, Zoro-san and I have been thinking the exact same thing since we woke up this morning _and could not take our breakfast_.”

Luffy moans again. Louder.

Zoro snickers from his place on the other side of the boat.

“You’re evil.” He comments, not lifting a finger to stop her.

“Thank you.” She replies, absolutely serious and voice as dry as can be.

Luffy sniffles, and finally raises his gaze to hers-

She never understood how the phrase ‘puppy eyes’ could apply to humans before.

Now?

Now she does, and she’s a fucking **goner**.

( _Don’t cave in, don’t cave in, don’t. Cave. In._

_You’ve got to show him who’s the one giving orders-_

_Even though he’s the Captain but_ semantics-

_Shut._ Up _. Brain._ )

She never thought that being more soft-hearted towards pets than humans could end up being a weakness. 

Luffy cranks up the power ( _oh my fucking goddess, he’s adding the tears, that little_ **_shit-_** ) and juts out his lower lip.

“I’m really sorry, Ann…”

She somehow manages to wrangle her rationality back into the control seat of her brain, and widens her smile just a tiny bit more so that a victorious flash of teeth appears.

“Oh, you don’t have to.” 

He blinks, taken aback. 

“I should have taken into account the size of your appetite -and your lack of planning skills. I will try and make sure that this doesn’t happen again.”

Zoro raises a brow at that.

“Weren’t you trying to get him to say sorry?”

“Nah. I’m just a mildly sadistic and completely resentful bitch. Who just happens to be hungry.”

“At least you’re aware of it.”

“And _that_ is when you’re supposed to deny my obviously low opinion of myself, and encourage me to think more positively and list at least ten things that I’ve done right in the day before going to bed.”

“Do I _look_ like a goddamn shrink to you?”

“Um… Well, it’s true that your face is a bit too scary for that.”

“Fuck you.”

“Sure, but could we do it later? Cause I’m not really into public s-”

Zoro sputters, boot-clad foot slipping on the deck to hit her thigh, sending her sprawling on her side with the force of it -and the help of a well-timed wave.

Luffy, whose smile was a bit confused up till now, bursts out laughing.

“Senseless violence.” Elynna groans dramatically.

“Senseless my ass. Serves you right.”

She stops herself from making a comment about his ass just in time, deeming him not above kicking a woman when she’s down at the moment.

_She just knew that honour was synonymous with machism._

So instead, she stands up and strips.

Luffy blinks, but doesn’t offer any other reaction, going back to making splashes with his feet in the water instead.

On the other hand, Zoro’s face, which was just starting to cool down, turns a violent red again, and he looks away so fast that she’s pretty sure she heard his bones crack, expression positively horrified.

She feels _so_ appreciated.

Butterflies in her stomach and all that.

_Really_.

“W- What the hell are you doing?!”

“... I’m stripping?” She answers, tone faux-innocent as she puts her jeans and top back into her bag to try and protect them from the water, letting her hair down from its bun.

“I meant _why_ , damnit!”

_Now you’re just asking for it, babe._

“Calm down, honey.” She replies, voice sickeningly sweet and face so blank she could only be teasing, but it still leaves the swordsman gaping at the bold use of the petname. “I told you I don’t like it in public. I’m just going to swim a bit…” And then she raises an eyebrow, eyes smug and smirking. “Why? Were you expecting another answer?”

She barely evades the still-tied spare rope that he chucks at her face, but in doing so she loses her balance and falls face first into the sea, her Captain’s renewed laughter echoing in her ears.

Is her brand of humour too complex for him to follow, or is this just favouritism?

( _She might not be supposed to be here, but he still wants her on his crew, right?_

_Even if she is so dull, especially now that Zoro is there to set a standard that she will probably never match-_

_She’s not asking for too much after all, right? No love, no affection, no praise-_

_Just basic respect_

_And for them to let her encroach upon their lives like the parasite she is-_ )

She consoles herself by deciding that their Captain simply took pity on Zoro, and so he only laughs at his actions rather than hers.

( _Now she just has to convince herself of it, beyond the superficial joke with herself._

_Since Zoro can’t play shrink, she has to take care of her self-esteem on her own, after all._

_~~Though she still thinks that bringing it down is better than an overblown ego, so she’ll just make sure that she doesn’t compliment herself too much, or insults herself enough to compensate, like always~~._)

She catches the rope on the way up, and asks for Luffy’s help to untie it, so that she can loop it around her waist and torso and to the boat so that, in the case they have to leave in a hurry and she doesn’t have the time to swim back, she isn’t left behind -or breaks her spine.

The water is so clear that she can’t quite force herself into closing her eyes, even though she knows it’s not the best for her vision.

( _This isn’t really her body, after all,_

_and if it can lift a wooden plank on which a dozen people are running -with their weapons, then it can take a bit of salty water, especially since everyone in this world probably ends up in the sea at some point in their life._ )

She smiles, eyes opened wide to take in the view of all the fishes and seaweed that are swimming and floating around her-

**_the memory is a bit blurry, and faded,_ **

**_like something old._ **

**_It’s a human child -probably. (The red nose isn’t something they’ve really seen before.)_ **

**_He’s drowning._ **

**_Of course he is._ **

**_Despite the passage of time, the sense of disgust is neither blurry nor faded._ **

**_The children of_ ** _that one_ **_are so arrogant, to think that they might be able to have everything._ **

**_That there would be no retaliation._ **

**_An eye for an eye, isn’t that right?_ **

**_But then a new human comes in to drag_ ** _that one’_ ** _s child up, and this one is clean. Pure._ **

**_And_ ** **oh,** **_his lifeforce looks just_ ** **delicious** ** _._ **

**_So they let the devil’s seed go._ **

**_They get used to the sight of him in their territory._ **

**_And they wait._ **

**_For the day when they can rip out this weed._ **

Her head breaks through the surface, breath heavy and eyes flickering aimlessly around her.

But there’s nothing.

No one.

Just her, the sea, and the fishes.

Her stomach twists and turns, and her bones rattle as she gnaws at her lower and then upper lip, tearing away bits and pieces of skin that burn like acid under the kiss of the salt.

_What-_

She feels the rope suddenly go tight.

She just has the time to take a deep breath and think _oh,_ **_fuck-_ **

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

“Hey, you managed to climb on? Your skills aren’t half-bad…”

“ _Were you_ trying _to kill us?!_ ”

The three newcomers sit back down, panting even more after that outburst.

They are quick to get their breath, though, and they are about to stand up again-

When a hand slams onto the ledge of the boat.

_A white, blue-tinted hand._

Followed by a long, dark halo of hair that floats around and sticks to a _whitewhitewhite_ face, in which two black holes are embedded instead of eyes-

They _scream_.

“A g- g- gho-gho-gho- _ghost_!”

The ghost coughs, sounding for all the world like they might spit out their lungs in the process.

“The hell…” Elynna wheezes, “was that for?”

“Ah, sorry. Luffy tried to get a bird for lunch, but got stuck in its beak, so I’m trying to catch up.” Zoro explains, still rowing furiously.

His tone sounds anything but sorry, and awfully vindictive on top of it.

( _Well, she_ was _the one who allowed boredom to make her speak more freely -again._

_At least he doesn’t look truly angry or disgusted with her jokes._ )

If she still had any breath left in her, Elynna would laugh, because, well, the situation _is_ quite funny.

As it is though, she’s too busy trying to lift herself back onto the fast-moving boat with the trembling noodles that she calls her arms.

… _And_ the blades that are suddenly thrusted under her nose, one of them almost slitting her throat open right off the bat.

“Stop the boat! This is Captain Buggy’s territory, and we’re taking it!”

She barely has the time to study her reflection on the blades before the three men are... convinced to let go of them and keep rowing in Zoro’s place, who sits down near her spot so that she can come out of the water without any further threat on her life.

She grabs the faded Marine uniform and puts it on over her jungle green bikini ( _there’s no need to soak another outfit in seawater, after all_ ) and ties her hair up again after wringing some water out of it.

The three pirates are quick to pour out excuses and attempts to flatter the swordsman -even though he’s supposed to be her underling.

( _She doesn’t hold it against them._

_Even_ she _can’t really make herself believe it._ )

“We’re really sorry! If we knew you were Roronoa Zoro, we would’ve never attacked your girlfriend.” 

“Um. I don’t think we’re really at that stage. Yet.” 

“The fuck are you saying?!” Zoro, who was about to snap at them, directs his ire at her instead, _since she feels the need to open her mouth again and blabber nonsensical things_.

“Your days of celibacy are numbered, Zoro-san.” She drawls blankly.

“You have no business phrasing that so threateningly.” 

Her smile is bland, but there is enjoyment in her eyes -it's not often that people respond to her humour with something else than embarassment or anger _(which, to be objective, is_ _understandable_ ).

“It’s a talent of mine. Just keep watching them, sweetheart.”

“Do it yourself.” He scoffs, but his lips are twitching all the same, barely holding back an amused smirk.

She lifts a finger, ready to use her best impersonation of a I-know-everything-so-don’t-you-dare-contradict-me voice. 

“Rule Number One of dating: gentleman behaviour.” 

He snorts without even attempting to take her seriously.

“Are you for real?” 

She brings her hands behind her to lean on them, crossing her legs at the ankle.

“Nah. It was just a nice word for sexism anyway. The last time a guy tried that on me, I kicked him.” 

( _Is she exagerrating? Of course._

_Does the point still stand? Fuck yes._ )

“At least there’s still hope for your fighting capabilities.” 

“And for your complementing abilities. It’s probably a big part of dating too.” 

“Oi, why do you think I haven’t thrown you three overboard yet?! Keep rowing towards the closest island!”

Buggy’s three subordinates speed up their rowing.

_…_

_So are they a couple or not?_

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

By the time they reach the so-called closest island -which apparently just so happens to also be the current base of the trio’s Captain, both Zoro and Elynna have heard all about the (pretty) thieving bitch who can predict the weather and stole their loot (“Don’t look so offended, you also stole it in the first place.”) and this Buggy ‘The Clown’ guy.

The nickname makes something shift in her mind, unearthing a few, crumpled memories of what she’s sure is a pretty big and important arc of the anime, but she can’t remember much more than some of his most noticeable features… including his nose. 

The shiver that runs up her spine has nothing to do with the wet clothes that stick to her skin.

These sea dreams seem to come with an awfully convenient timing, and although they might prove useful, she’s not sure that she likes their possible meaning.

She is barely stepping out of their boat when the three run away. Neither her nor Zoro pay much attention to them.

Instead, he taps the hilt of one of his katanas against the juncture of his shoulder pensively, and turns to her.

“Should we go meet that Buggy guy?”

She stares back, a weight of lead falling through her as she realises that he expects her to decide where to go and what to do and how to do it and-

Her teeth clamp down on her lower lip until the still-fresh cuts she made bleed.

_If she follows the One Piece logic…_

She starts walking in the direction the three others took.

“Maybe not meet him, but we should probably at least go and see for ourselves what kind of guy he is. At the very least, we’ll get information on one of the Captain’s potential rivals. At best, that bird didn’t change directions since we lost him, and the Captain most likely found a way to get back on land, in which case he’s probably already raised hell and landed himself in some near-death situation.”

“Fair enough.” Zoro smirks in amusement. “And that girl? If she can guess and use the weather to her advantage like that, she could make a good navigator.”

“I guess we could always ask her if we end up meeting her.” She hums, not completely sure yet if they are talking about the actual navigator of the Straw Hat Pirates -one thing that’s for sure is that the latter is _definitely_ pretty. “The fact that she’s pretty and fun is just a huge bonus in her favour.”

He scoffs incredulously under his breath.

“Someone who manipulates people? _That’s_ your idea of fun?”

“Hell yeah, as long as I’m not the one being played into giving up everything I have.”

“You are _such_ a bitch.”

She doesn’t answer, because just then a blast echoes through the air, followed by a wave of heat and dust.

Instinctively she crouches down, hands flattened against her ears in a vain attempt to block out the pandemonium that is booming through her body, feeling each organ vibrate sickinengly in the rattling embrace of her bones which seems ready to dislocate and fall apart-

Two warm, larger hands cover hers and eventually force them away from her skull despite her struggle, before one hand firmly takes hold of her lower face and forces her to lift her head, at which point she realises that she has sealed her eyes shut at some point so she forces herself to open them but her vision is swimming and she can’t see- 

her hands are trembling and have no strength and she’s pretty sure that she would topple over if the other person wasn’t supporting her ( _her father? Zoro? A classmate? Jamie? Who is Zoro? Where is she, she can’t remember, can’t think, can’t_ **_breathe-_** ) but why is her body still vibrating? Why does she feel so hot and cold and soaked in sweat? What happened? Why are her ears ringing and she’s pretty sure that they’re talking to her but _she can’t hear anything_ -

“Elynna!”

And suddenly her vision clears, and her eyes meet those, hesitant ( _almost frantic_ -) of Zoro, and she gasps, taking in a lungful of air and then some, throat and lungs burning under the the cool caress of it, like she stopped breathing for whatever amount of time she spent trapped in the aimless circles of her own mind -she probably has.

She remembers where she is ( _although not_ why, _if there’s even a why, because_ **_she has no reason to be here_** ), remembers what they came to this island for, remembers the explosion.

She breathes again, willing herseld to make it less shaky, and runs a hand over face to take away the cold sheen of sweat that covers it, then back over her neck to hide the fact that it’s still shaking too.

She gulps several times despite how dry and sore her throat feels, until she doesn’t feel like the only sound she can make is a frail whisper - _as frayed as her still shaken mind_.

“Wanna bet that we’ll find the Captain if we go wherever this came from?”

Zoro’s lips thin as his eyebrows furrow, the metallic grey of his eyes still staring at her, but if there’s one thing good about his code of behaviour in that moment, it’s that he doesn’t like people prying into his business when he doesn’t offer to talk about it first, and especially so when it comes to his weaknesses.

So he doesn’t ask questions and doesn’t make comments, rising silently to his feet.

She tries to do the same, and immediately trips over her own feet like a newborn fawn, almost falling over in the process before he clasps his hand over her forearm to steady her.

She screws her eyes shut to stop the world from spinning, and breathes out slowly.

“Unless it would slow you down too much, I think a piggyback ride is going to be in order if we want to be there before we get wrinkles.”

“Stop making weird jokes and get on already.”

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

When Zoro eventually reaches the rooftop of the building next to that of the bar from which the only noise of the town is coming, Elynna feels a lot better, and signals to him to let her down.

She sighs in relief internally when she finds herself able to stand on her own two feet without any dizziness, and comes to a stop next to Zoro to observe what is happening on the neighbouring roof, which reaches a slightly lower level than the one he chose.

It’s rather easy to grasp most of the situation.

Luffy is in a cage, which a cannon is aiming at, surrounded by a crowd of what, she assumes, are Buggy’s pirates.

And a red-haired girl is standing besides the cannon.

Even from where they are standing, Elynna can tell that she has no desire to light up its fuse, despite the cheers of the crowd asking her to do so.

What she sees of the other girl’s features from here is enough to know that she is the one who ends up joining the Straw Hat Pirates, and so she is barely surprised when the girl puts together a staff faster than she can gleefully think _this is going to hurt_ , and sends it flying into the face of the pirate who was about to do the job for her.

What she isn’t expecting is to see her close her hands around the fuse that was still lit to save her Captain.

Her scream locks every one of her muscles into place, body balking against the sheer _hurt_ it betrays.

“Stay here.” Zoro tells her, before jumping off the roof.

She doesn’t pay much attention to his probably very cool entrance, mind occupied by his words.

_Stay here?_

She would very much like to. The furthest she is from a fight, the better off she is.

Except there are a lot of pirates here, none of which she could hope to beat, or at least not without a ridiculours amount of luck -which she doesn’t have. And there’s little chance that no enemy will notice her in the fight that _will_ follow, especially when she will join her crewmates to get out of here.

So she will be the safest if easily reachable by them in the case that does find herself in a pinch.

Besides, it’s not like the gap between both rooftops is that wide or high, even if her body is built the same as in her world.

So she jumps.

There’s about as little shock as there is when she rolls out of bed, although she staggers on impact -as if her body didn’t want to stop where she intended. She files that particular fact in her mind for later perusal, and locks eyes with the not-just-pretty-but-more-like-drop-dead-gorgeous girl, inviting her to come closer with a wave of her hand as she rummages in her backpack for a roll of gauze and a clean cloth that she transferred from her medical kit, as well as the small glass bottle in which she put some drinkable water.

She silently rejoices in her own head over the fact that she read a few pages about the treatment of burns in Food Foo, and that she borrowed Luffy’s arms and legs to train herself in making bandages while he slept that morning.

She might not remember everything she read, and her dressings might not be worth that of a professional, but she should be able to make sure that the pirate thief’s burn won’t become infected, especially with the healing rate of even a lambda citizen in this world.

“Who are you guys? What’s going on he-”

Elynna places a finger against her own lips in the universal plea for silence as she tears the protection around the cloth apart, and gets to work soaking the latter in water.

“It would be best if I had more time, but I don’t think Zoro-san will need much time to take care of these guys, or that we’ll stay unnoticed for long, so for now I can’t really answer your questions, and we’ll have to make do with this.” She explains hurriedly in soft whispers as she covers the burn with a wet cloth and starts wrapping the gauze around it, wincing and muttering a quick ‘sorry’ as she feels her patient tense up with the applied pressure -but she can’t tie it too loose.

As her hands work on the final knot, she looks up and into the large doe eyes of the other girl ( _isn’t brown supposed to be the most boring eye colour in the world?_ ), framed by frankly unfairly long eyelashes.

“I’m Elynna, by the way.” She smiles, quick and small but polite.

The pirate thief stares at her, eyebrows furrowed in clear confusion.

“... Nami.” She finally relents with hesitation.

_Ah, yes._ That’s _the name she was looking for._

_Nami._

Satisfied, she turns around to check the situation with her crewmates, only to find a man whom she assumes to be Buggy ‘The Clown’, dressed -uh, rather colourfully, and about to attack Zoro, while Luffy is hollering for the latter to ‘beat his ass, Zoro!’.

She forces her eyes to stay open, because unless she one day doesn’t need to see in order to fight, she can’t afford to look away from this if she wants to be able to focus on noticing attacks in the middle of a big-scale battle later on. So she watches as the man ( ** _I_** ** _t’s a human child... -He’s drowning._** ) rushes at Zoro with his own blades, as Zoro slices him into pieces, as his attacker fall to the ground without even a death rattle, as the blood seeps from his wo-

_Wait_.

There’s no blood.

There’s no fucking blood.

_Why is there no blood?_

And even if their Captain was a tyrant, these guys’ laughter sounds way too smug.

She doesn’t think.

Doesn’t even see the pirate Captain’s body reassembling on its own, because she’s already running towards Zoro, feet thumping against the roof, blood rushing in her ears and she sees a glint in the corner of her eyes and _fuck, she’s not fast enough, not close enough_ -

She jumps.

And her side meets Zoro’s back with all the force of it, sending the both of them slamming into the ground, her body rolling away with her momentum, bare arms scraping painfully against the stone of the terrace.

Despite the dizziness that is coming back, she forces herself to jump to her feet as soon as she stops, because she knows that now she has been noticed and she can’t hide anymore and maybe they’re _right here_ -

She stops.

Her mind is still running and tripping over itself under the shot of adrenaline, howling at her to _keep moving, you brainless wretch!_ -

But her eyes are stuck, wide and staring at Zoro’s hand, which is clenching his left side as he kneels there, blood seeping from under it-

“Zoro- Ah, Ann! Where did you come from?!”

She doesn’t answer her Captain’s question. 

She doesn’t even look at him.

_This isn’t her being about to die._

_This isn’t her watching someone with just about zero redeeming qualities, someone easy to judge as mostly evil without feeling too superficial about it, hurting other people._

_This is not even her hurting or killing enemies in a fight._

_This is her, hurting someone who is supposed to be her ally_ (whom she even hoped might become her friend, _the ghost of her voice whispers in the back of her mind, because she’s not that numb or misanthropic yet_ ).

She feels _sick_.

“Who the hell are you?!” The clown-nosed pirate yells in a strident voice, as his second hand floats back to his forearm, holding a blade that glints _redredred_.

Each drop falling from it is like detonation inside her mind, her heart _pulsingtwistingsqueezing_ until it feels like it just might implode-

She’s still staring, seeing nothing but Zoro’s hand and the blood the blood the blood he’s bleeding he’s hurt because of her _it’sherfault_ ** _shehasdonethis_** -

“I’m gonna kick your ass!”

Luffy’s words ( _or his promise, considering his personality_ ), distorted as they are when uttered around the dagger stuck between his teeth, somehow reach her despite the fact that the rest of the world feels as out of touch as when she’s underwater, just in time for her to hear his orders.

“Ann! Zoro! Run away!”

She stays frozen for a moment ( _and during that second, she can’t quite force herself to move, can’t quite remember how to_ -), vaguely hearing the protests of Nami, who has come to stand beside Zoro - _when?_ , and then snaps back to reality as she sees him slide under the cannon and start lifting it up.

She barely needs a second to understand what he’s aiming for, and runs up to them to snatch the box of matches that Nami is still clutching in her hand. When Zoro looks up to tell the other girl to light the fuse, he stops as his eyes fall on the First Mate instead -and because the wick is already burning away.

She doesn’t look at him then, and doesn’t look either as her Captain and the thief yell at him to stop trying to lift the cage on his shoulder, because ‘uwahhh, your stomach is going to pop out!’.

She just shoulders her backpack again, tearing skin away from her lips and one hand clawing harshly at the skin of the opposite upper arm in an effort to distract herself from the feelings inside.

She doesn’t say anything.

Because she doesn’t have a better idea to offer ( _and wouldn't that be a first?_ ). 

Because she doesn’t have the right to say anything. 

( _Because her voice can’t come out, stuck in her throat as she watches the three teenagers yell in panic and jab at each other-_

_And she feels so far away._

_Feels like a ghost._

_Not seen._

_Not heard._

_Not needed._

_-she squashes the feeling, cramming it at the very bottom of her heart, because she can’t afford to think that all of_ this _isn’t real. She never had a lot of nightmares, and none that were this creative in the first place, and the fact the she never saw or heard proof that world-travelling is possible in the other world doesn’t make it impossible in the slightest -neither her nor the human race can claim to be all-knowing._

_More than that, the thought settles with the weight of a truth, deep inside the marrow of her bones, that if she allows herself to believe that this is anything but the truth, she may not,_ will _not be able to keep her mind together, and might just start looking at everyone here like one-dimensional cardboard puppets with no substance or feeling or consciousness-_

_-she might just become a lot more numb than she already is._

_Besides, it’s not like she’s new to the feeling of staring at a group of people with curled shoulders and trembling hands and a cowering mind, unable to scrape together the courage to join them and_ talk, _not even knowing_ how _to._

_-hovering on the edge of the group like a parasitic ghost, so close and yet feeling light years away from them-_ )

Still, when Zoro starts running and jumping to another roof, she follows after him as she launches a debate with herself on whether or not she should part with them here.

She thought that she could scrounge on the Straw Hat Pirates and use them to go back home without giving them anything in exchange, as long as she makes herself scarce and isn’t too much of a bother. 

But there’s a difference between not having anything to add to their talents and bringing them down. ( _Because really, who does she think she’s fooling, running shoulder first into Zoro like that when he has much better instinct than her and probably felt Buggy’s killing intent or whatever from the beginning?_ )

And after all, she has no idea whether arriving here just when Luffy is drowning was intended or not. For all she knows, she’s about to head straight for the most dangerous part of this world, where it’s almost guaranteed that she will be heavily injured at some point, all for the sake of finding a clue concerning her situation, which is a very shaky plan based on even more vague premises at best and a foolish hope at worst.

There might not even be a way for her to go back, in which case she’d rather make her life in the least problematic sea, with no price on her head and no link to anyone for whom it will be the case, thank you very much. 

Besides, she might not be the nicest person ever, but she has no reason to make this crew’s life harder.

(- _not when Luffy’s antics make her laugh inside no matter how scared and tense and tired she feels, not when the warmth of his skin on hers grounds her mind in this body like it really_ is _hers, grounds her mind in this reality and keeps it from running too far-_

_-not when Zoro’s sarcasm and flustered reactions make her shoulders relax and her mouth more talkative, make the creeping anxiety that at some point she’ll cross a line and be left alone for good decrease_ -)

The fact that she already feels comfortable enough with Zoro and Luffy to go out of her way to talk to them instead of just being polite is also a problem. She doesn’t like dealing with emotions -hers or other’s- or acting on them beyond analysing them to understand what she’s feeling and why, but she’s not stupid enough to think that she can deny them into non-existence, or that they don’t sway her decisions. 

While she can find faults in the Straw Hats ( _if she spends more time with them, she’s pretty sure that she will_ not _always be very patient with Luffy’s loudness and ‘let’s fight then eat and then maybe think’ attitude, and that her and Zoro will probably end up clashing over the importance of honour vs. survival_ ), she can tell that she wouldn’t really have a problem to get along well with them on most days, that she might even come to consider them her friends. It will probably also be valid for Nami and the ones who follow. They are the main characters after all, it’s logical to make them lovable for a large public. 

She herself is a relatively decent human being, quite easy to be polite with at the very least -or so she likes to think. So if she does find a way to get back home, then what? Does she disappear without a trace like she wasn’t ever there, as in the original story? Does she fake her death? Does she sit them down and tell her true story -or a fake one? She’s never done any of the above, but she’s pretty sure that all of them will hurt both parties to some extent. Staying alone might just be for the best, and it’s not like it’s something that bothers her or that she isn’t used to.

When she hears the clang of Luffy’s cage as Zoro put it down now that he has reached the street, she mutes her internal debate, stepping on the other side of the cube to at least alleviate its weight a little bit, being careful to match her steps and gait on Zoro’s so as to not jolt his wound any further.

Fortunately, they don’t walk too far before Zoro goes to collapse against a pillar, although it’s still far enough that she’s breathing in short pants and covered in sweat.

Her hands aren’t shaking too much compared to how she thinks they would with her original body, however, which is a good thing considering what she has to do now. They have entirely stopped by the time she has taken out everything she needs, and her mind has finished running through what she remembers of her readings and panicking over the fact that _god fucking damnit, she thought she would have more time to prepare before one of them would have the brilliant idea to go and get a wound that she can’t just slap a band-aid over, and on top of this_ **_she’s_ ** _the cause of it_ -

She kneels down beside Zoro so that she can still see Luffy, whose face is being eaten by a dog ( _she decides that he probably deserves it and dismisses the issue entirely_ ), and reaches for the swordsman’s bloodied haramaki, only to be stopped by his hand on her wrist.

“It’s fine. I just need to sleep.”

“Look,” she sighs, eyes on his hand because she is still unable to look him in the eye after what she has done. “I know that you’re very resilient, and I believe you. If I could avoid using thread and a needle on someone’s body, I would. But if we are going to kick that guy’s ass like the Captain said, we need you to heal even faster so that you feel as good as possible for the fight.”

She feels his stare drilling a hole in the side of her head, before he releases her.

“Fine. You’re the First Mate anyway.”

He turns obligingly on his good side when she asks him, and she presses her knees to his back so he can lean on them for a more stable position. After checking that her hair is all tied up and washing her hand with anaesthetic to limit the bacteria -especially since she doesn’t have gloves, she carefully peels away his haramaki and shirt, and cleans the dust and sweat around the wound with a wet cloth, forcing herself to get used to the sight of the wound with all the red and the yellow and _oh, is that bone white_ \- 

“Thanks, by the way.”

Her hand freezes.

“For what.” She asks, voice so flat in her incredulity that it doesn’t even sound like a question.

“Don’t make me say it.” He grumbles, clearly not pleased with himself for needing someone’s help to do _whatever it is he’s talking about_.

The first stare that she sends him since he jumped off that roof to save Nami tells him clearly that _yeah, no, she has no fucking idea what he’s on about_.

He rolls his eyes in frustration.

“Thanks for getting me out of the way. If you hadn’t, he probably would have stabbed me in the stomach.”

“Yeah, Ann! You were great!” Luffy chimes in, his face finally free from the dog’s jaws.

“Well, you could have done it a bit more gently, though.”

She blinks sluggishly, brain fried and unable to respond to the teasing as it processes that apparently, she did not, in fact, make the situation worse, but better. Not enough, because Zoro still got hurt, but the bleeding gash in his skin just below the ribs was obviously better than being stabbed in the stomach where there were so many organs.

She drags herself back to reality quickly, though, because she has work to do and probably limited time to do it.

“Just check that your enemy is really dead next time. If we’re going against the strongest pirates, we’ll meet a lot more with powers similar to the Captain’s.” Her shoulders slouch as her eyes bounce between the needle and the wound, and her stomach heaves the slightest bit ( _the thought comes to her that Luffy eating all their food during the night might actually prove to be a good thing_ ). “Damnit, this is why I stopped picturing myself as a vet at five years old.”

“Right. Wait, did you just compare me to that dog right n-” The rest of Zoro’s sentence is lost in a scream that is both surprise and pain. “What the fuck are you doing?!”

“It’s anaesthetic.” Elynna answers nonchalantly, running the cloth several times over the wound after sanitising the needle. “It burns like a bitch at first, but believe me, you’ll appreciate not feeling anything when I start sewing, especially since I’ve never done this before. And it might just reduce the pain during the fight, too.”

Zoro grumbles some more, but eventually settles when he feels the area becoming numb. He can work with this level of pain on short term -it is more the lack of blood that is problematic, but it’s still much better not feeling any, although it does feel weird to vaguely feel the needle and thread go through the layers of his skin.

Above him, Elynna unconsciously gnaws harder at her lips, eyes straining not to blink as she ties the knot of yet another stitch, reaching up to quickly rub the sweat away from her eyes with her wrist before placing it back on Zoro’s ribcage to start threading the needle along, making sure that the distance between the two stitches is as similar as possible compared to the last one. 

If it were any other situation, she would be marvelling at the sight -and touch- of Zoro’s body because damn, the guy is _ripped_ , and they aren’t muscles given by retouching a picture or built in a fitness centre without any actual use in daily life either. 

( _or maybe she would marvel at the warmth of his skin and the beat of his heart that she can feel beneath her palm, because it’s the first time she’s touching someone of this world for this long, and it’s the clearest, most irrefutable proof that everyone here is_ alive-)

But the only thing she can focus on right now is the needle in her hand and the gash under her eyes and the _loud-_

She stops.

“Captain.”

“Ah.” Luffy looks up from the dog he has gotten into a scuffle with -again. “Yeah?”

“I need to focus if I don’t want to mess up. So,” she exhales slowly, forcing her jaws to unlock, because she needs to stay calm right now, and getting angry won’t help her drive in her point anyway. “Could you please try to stay as calm as possible until I’m done with this?”

Luffy stares at her a bit, at the hand that trembles against Zoro’s side, and settles back in his cage with a decisive nod. 

He’s rewarded by the slight loosening of his First Mate’s shoulders and her grateful nod.

She’s winding the roll of gauze around Zoro’s midsection after making him sit up when Nami joins them again.

“Oh, hey navigator.” Zoro and Luffy chorus.

“I told you I’m not becoming your navigator!” Nami shoots a glare at Luffy, before throwing something at his feet with a sigh. “Anyway, here. I just want to repay my debt to you for saving my life.”

“The key? You got the key for me?!” Luffy throws his arms in the air with a cry of delight, gushing about how great Nami is.

Until the dog picks up the key and eats it.

“And that,” Elynna breathes in the silence that follows, “is called karma.”

“Do you even understand the situation we’re in?! You could at least pretend to be worried!”

“Stop moving, Zoro-san. I’m trying to tie your bandage here.”

As she carefully pulls down the swordsman’s clothes over his form, Luffy’s frantic strangling of the dog is interrupted by the arrival of a man claiming to be the town’s mayor, who explains to them that the villagers took refuge in a shelter further inland, and then brings Zoro to his house so he can rest.

By the time he comes back, Elynna has crouched down near the dog, running a careful hand over his fur. The gesture is familiar. Soothing. 

Her grandparents have had several dogs over the years, and the current one was getting old, so taking naps on the sun-warmed terrace while petting the golden retriever became more and more of a habit.

When the mayor brings food to the one he calls Chouchou, she watches him walk away from under her hand, blinking back tears at the thought of that other dog that she might never see again ( _because even if she does find a way to come back, she has no idea whether he will survive that long or not_ ).

She breathes in sharply to block the sob that is coming out, and uncurls her body from its position, acutely aware of the choking, consuming hollowness around her sternum, weighing her _downdowndown_ even as she gets up.

She picks up her bag as the mayor sits down to tell them the story of why Chouchou is sitting frozen in front of a pet store, because she can’t-

( _-she can’t stay here right now._ )

“Ann? Where are you going?”

She stops, but doesn’t face him, not sure that she can stay stoic if she sees his -or anyone’s- face.

“Ah, I’m just going to the chemist’s I saw on the way here to restock on some things. Oh, and Nami-san?”

“Uh, yeah?”

“Although it did not serve its purpose, thank you for bringing the key.”

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

She’s trying to decide whether she should take more things than the ones she restocked on, considering that the labels are different than the ones she’s used to, and so she has no idea what they contain ( _she’s studying humanities and social sciences, not chemistry or biology, after all_ ), when a crash from outside startles her.

She crouches down so that no one can see her just in case, grabs a few vials of what she understands to be painkillers, stuffs them in her backpack, and crawls back to the entrance of the store, forgetting to leave a few bills on the counter in her haste.

Back stuck to the wall, she carefully listens, but she can’t hear anything that sounds close to her position, only… barking?

She takes a peek out of the window, only to see a hige lion swat Chouchou away nonchalantly, sending him crashing into a nearby house. Considering that the theme of Buggy’s crew is clearly the circus, she has no doubt that the guy coming out of the pet store with a food pack is part of it, but-

_Wait, what the fuck is he doing?!_

She swears under her breath as she watches the pirate give the box to the lion, and then throw a lit match into the store.

Smoke starts rising from the entrance of the store, but Elynna has already turned away and gone to the backroom, taking out a white coat and a bunch of rags from a wardrobe while cursing up a storm in her mind about _this brainless pirate who idiotically burns down a store that could feed his lion for at least a few weeks_ and _what kind of inferiority complex does he have to burn down a store because a dog refuses to die at his feet?!_ She soaks the rags in the sink and stuffs them in the coat’s pocket before tying the last one around her lower face, then grabs an almost full bottle of water left on the counter by the store’s occupant, and empties half of it above her head, not caring about the growing puddle on the floor.

And then she’s running out of the door, barely stopping to check that the other pirate is gone, running past the dog that is sitting in front of the store, running into the burning building, putting the now half-full bottle on a table before she gets started, raiding the shelves and throwing boxes and accessories out of the door as fast as she can, winding the wet rags around her hand when she reaches the part of the store with metallic objects, eyes dry and stinging and checking every few seconds that she’s isn’t on fire because the heat waves feel like she’s hurling herself at a wall covered in ember-

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

Nami stands there, staring in horror at the burning building, at the dog sitting in front of it and howling his grief towards the sky, unable to do anything as the sea of memories she’s constantly drowning in becomes more stormy ( ** _they_ ** _didn’t use fire, but there was plenty of destruction, and she lost her home and treasures all the same_ ).

The ghost of a warm, laughing voice flies by her ear, but she can’t quite catch it - _not anymore_ , can’t quite remember the words she said before _that_ fight.

( _The last fight._

_The last_ anything _._ )

She clenches her fists, lips trembling.

“Pirates… They’re all the same!” She slams her fist against the building she and the mayor used as a cover in case Mohji was still there, not caring about the searing pain that spreads from her hand as the burnt skin takes the brunt of the hit, not caring about the dressing that the girl -the _pirate_ \- made for her.

In fact, she tears it apart furiously, simultaneously clawing at every memory in her mind of this Luffy guy’s dumb smile and funny antics, of how Zoro saved her and was ready to bleed out to get his Captain out of a difficult situation, of Elynna’s politeness and careful hands.

She wants _nothing_ to do with any of them, wants no positive impression of pirates to be left in her mind. She can’t believe she’s been this _naïve-_

The sound of footsteps catches her attention, and when she sees that guy come back, without _any_ sign of feeling sorry for what is happening to Chouchou, she _snaps_.

She doesn’t notice the objects flying from the store behind her back, barely aware of what she says, of what she does, of the _things_ she hurls at him, shrieking and spewing the poison corroding her every night and day-

The sound of the box Luffy was carrying as he puts it beside Chouchou, tiny as it is, is what makes her finally stop, and stare again as the boy settles next to the dog, what makes her notice the pile of other objects in front of them.

And then all of them see several collars and leashes fly through the air and land on the pile.

“What-”

Whatever the mayor is about to say, he cuts himself off as a figure dressed in white crashes through a window, rolling to a stand. One hand tearing the cloth away from her face while the other throws off the white coat whose bottom has caught on fire, the plump, dark-haired girl that Nami now recognises as Elynna falls to her knees, her whole body shuddering violently with the force of her coughs.

In a flash Luffy is kneeling in front of her, hands flying around her form, touching her face and then her shoulders in frantic worry.

“Ann! Ann! Are you alright?!” 

A particularly rough coughing fit almost sends her sprawling forward if not for her Captain steadying her with his hold on her shoulders, and the instinctive way she grasps at his red shirt with the hand that is not covering her mouth.

“You’re gonna be okay, right?! You can’t- You can’t _die_!” The straw-hatted boy keeps yelling, the panicked expression plastered on his face looking entirely out of place.

Nami frowns, her heart going out for him despite her earlier thoughts -especially considering what the both of them did for Chouchou. Since she met him, he seemed so confident, so unfamiliar with feelings of fear and doubt, that she can’t help but be surprised to see him like this. The girl’s coughing sounds awful too, making Nami feel like she’s about to see blood or bits of lung splatter the pavement of the street.

It’s the first time that she sees a pirate care for someone else than themselves. 

( ** _He_** _brags a lot about those he calls brothers, but she has never seen him caring for one in a weakened state._

_Then again, it doesn’t happen often for their kind in a place like East Blue._

_-she doubts he would accept a show of weakness anyway_.) 

So when she sees that boy who’s so strong and smiles so brightly, when she sees the other one who jumps to the defence of someone he doesn’t know because he thinks several people against one isn’t a fair fight, and who only fought Buggy when he had no choice, when she sees that girl whose face doesn’t quite seem to manage expressing her emotions but who still addresses her so politely... She finds herself wondering if they really _are_ pirates. 

“Well, I hope I’m not gonna die like this.” A voice wheezes in a rasp. “It’s fucking... painful, and the originality of... being killed by charred dog food fumes is kind of outweighed... by the ridiculousness.”

Suddenly, Elynna seems to realise that she’s still clinging to her Captain’s shirt, and she releases it hurriedly, looking less flustered than worried, as if she overstepped a boundary -except it doesn’t make sense to Nami when she sees the way Luffy catches her hand in its fall.

“... I should be fine in a few minutes and with a bit of water.” She eventually says hesitantly, and immediately he beams again, the change so quick that it’s like he was never worried in the first place.

“Oh good!”

“Captain?”

“Um?”

“Buggy -and his crew. They are… much more experienced than those you’ve fought so far.”

He nods with the most serious expression Nami has seen on his face so far.

“Yeah.” 

“You can’t go easy on them like you did before, okay? I don’t want to see you hurt more than necessary.”

His face breaks into a smile again, and he laughs.

“Okay. I get it.”

And even though she doesn’t smile, at this moment, Elynna’s whole face melts into something heartbreakingly _soft_ , hand reaching up to thread her fingers gently through the boy’s dark hair, and his smile becomes somehow even _wider_ , eyes victorious and delighted and _hungry_ -

Nami feels like an intruder.

_Yep, no, they_ cannot _be pirates. Just… No._

“Excuse me, young lady.”

Apparently, that’s not the case of the mayor, and it gives Nami the guts to follow after him and walk closer to the other two.

Elynna looks up, hand stopping in its movement but staying put.

“Yes?”

“May I ask why you helped Chouchou?”

She rubs her lips together in thought for a moment, before shrugging, hand falling back to her lap ( _and Nami almost wants to giggle, because Luffy’s childish pout makes it very clear how much he disagrees with this -she never thought pirates of all people would make her_ giggle).

“I just like dogs. I might not have been there to hear your story, but if you didn’t take him to the shelter when you left town, I would guess that you couldn’t get him to leave this place, so it must be important for him.”

“I see. Thank you, on behalf of Chouchou and his owner. This was very brave of you.”

“Yep! Ann’s the best First Mate ever!” 

Nami raises a brow at that -she thought the First Mate was the green-haired one.

“Yes, well,” the long-haired girl waves their comments off, looking entirely unsure as to how she’s supposed to react, “if you could learn from it, it would be great, because I’m pretty sure that in my place you would run in without taking any protective measures, and you would stay in the store until you had no way to get out without literally jumping through fire like the reckless idiot you are.”

Luffy makes a protesting noise at that, but is soon distracted, like everyone else, by the fact that Chouchou has started moving, taking Luffy’s box to the pile, before limping to the middle of their little circle, barking in a way that Nami can only describe as amicable towards the two pirates.

“Shishishi! Thanks! Good luck to you too!”

His First Mate bends down, smoothing over his fur while being careful to not scratch or touch his injuries, bending down to press her nose against Chouchou’s broad forehead wordlessly, before she straightens up, eyes immediately trailing to Nami’s hand.

She’s not quick enough to hide it, something like shame heating her cheeks and guiding her gaze away. The hand taking hold of hers gently makes her jump, but she doesn’t move, letting the other girl do what she needs.

“Please wait here, Nami-san. I left my backpack at the chemist’s so I have to go there and take a cream for light burns with me too.”

She’s barely disappeared behind the door down the street that the mayor’s outburst is interrupted by another Special Buggy Ball -except this time Nami isn’t behind the cannon.

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

Elynna manages to control her reaction a bit better at the second explosion, and so when she joins the group no one seems to notice anything amiss with her ( _which is for the best, because there wasn’t any mirror in the store, so she has no idea how much she managed to compose herself_ ).

Or perhaps they were too busy marvelling over the fact that the only thing Zoro has to say when he survives a cannon shot is ‘talk about a rude awakening’. 

She doesn’t want to imagine the number of alarm clocks that guy would need to wake up on time.

She comes to a stop in front of Nami, who asks her to put the cream on her hand since she is the only one of the two of them to have just washed their hands. She does so carefully, eyeing the redhead’s face for any sign of discomfort at her touch -although that’s not very telling considering how she got the burn in the first place.

Once done, she slathers the cream on her own hands and forearms, slightly red despite the use of the rags.

“I won’t forgive them!” The mayor suddenly bursts out, body trembling with the force of his scream and all the feelings poured out with it. “These pirates have no right to come here and destroy forty years of our work and lives like this!”

She stares as Nami tries to hold him back, nonplussed.

_What is he talking about?_

She gets what he’s feeling, can imagine his anger and helplessness and the way his chest feels like a fist has been shoved into it and is wrenching out his heart while he _chokeschokeschokes_ on his own blood and grief and-

( _She has never seen her home being destroyed, but no matter how much she tells herself that if she came here then it means that she can go back, her pessimistic mind is already half-convinced that her home is lost forever-_ )

But this has nothing to do with ‘having the right’ to do anything. It’s just about having the capability to do it. They have the firepower for it, there’s no one more powerful to tell them no, they don’t care about the law, and they feel like destroying a town. That’s all.

She wonders on what basis he tells himself that. Common human decency? As far as she’s concerned, this is as much a social construct as law -an ideal that not everyone interprets in the same way or adheres to to the same extent.

She watches the mayor’s back as he runs, runs away from them and towards what he apparently knows to be his probable death, even though he and the other villagers might be able to come up with a plan to at least inflict some damage on Buggy’s crew before dying.

She hopes that she will never lose control of her emotions this much, because she thinks that his much more stupid than it is brave, and if she can’t die peacefully, she’d rather die smartly, at least.

( ~~ _Unless she really is too tired, in which case she might just allow herself to fall apart, to give up_~~ -)

She turns back around as her Captain’s laugh reaches her ears, barely covering the thief’s nagging.

“Hey, Nami, join my crew!”

The pretty redhead’s gaze bounces between his absurdly bright smile and the hand he holds out to her, before slapping it away.

“I already told you I won’t become a pirate. But... I guess that an alliance is okay. We’ll just work towards our individual goals.”

Elynna steals a glance at Zoro, but he seems busy warming up. She rolls her eyes. 

Well, since her Captain will probably only remember the word ‘okay’ from the whole sentence, she will just have to be the one to keep Nami’s wording in mind.

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

As Zoro’s body hits the ground, he thinks that cutting his wound open again was maybe -just maybe- a bad idea, because he can feel his mind getting woozy with the lack of blood, and every breath hurts.

Whispers of muttered curses reach his ears, but he can’t quite force his eyes to open.

“Honour my ass… Men… Suicidal urge is more like it… Absolute idiots…”

He smirks faintly to himself, because for all her grumbling, she didn’t step in or ask Luffy to intervene in his fight.

Then again, he’s pretty sure that she’s too weak to do much, even against one of the lower members.

Which pisses him off considering that he is her subordinate, but at the same time, if she was as reckless as Luffy and insisted to join in the fray, she would be more of a liability than anything else, so he can at least respect her for being aware of her weakness, staying on the sidelines and making herself useful in other ways. 

Besides, she seems to have the will to get stronger, so he decides here and there that as soon as they have a real ship with enough space for it, he’ll get back to his own training and drag her into it.

( _He just might be motivated by the idea of getting back at her for the way she’s rubbing the anaesthetic on his wound right now, because he can swear that she’s doing it more aggressively than the last time._ )

She takes less time for her stitches this time around, since she did each of them separately, and Zoro didn’t cut through all of them, so she has fewer to redo. She takes advantage of the fact that the anaesthetic has yet to wear off to support Zoro away from the middle of the street and to a more secluded area where she already took the mayor after taking care of him as much as she can, and they sit down to watch their Captain fight.

Zoro doesn’t really _see_ anything of what he’s looking at, though, too busy thinking some more about the girl sitting next to him.

There’s something weird about her. Several things, in fact.

From what he understood, she seems to have lived the life of any average, law-abiding citizen, without ever planning to become something like a criminal until, according to Luffy’s story, she wound up saving his life after getting lost while swimming, of all things.

But then why did she accept Luffy’s offer, instead of parting ways at Shells Town and looking for a boat to bring her back to her island, where she apparently had a family to return to? 

And the way she looks at the world, from the resigned bitterness of her words to the darkness in her eyes as she watched the mayor walk away earlier but didn’t _do_ anything-

Not to mention her reaction to the first cannon ball. He has never seen anyone look quite that scared - _terrified_ \- before. Sure, the sound was loud and sudden, but she somehow turned even paler than she already was ( _it made the darkness of her eyes haunting_ ) and was shaking so much that he had to keep her from falling, and when he looked into her eyes he was pretty sure that she couldn’t even _recognise_ him-

And then there’s the fact that she’s still using honorifics with him despite the casual way she swears and throws sarcasm and innuendos at him, the fact that he has yet to hear her call Luffy anything other than ‘Captain’ ( _somehow, he’s sure that if she had a polite title to use for him, he would never hear his own name coming out of her mouth either_ ). 

Like she’s trying to build a relationship with them that allows them to work together, but where she can still keep her distance.

There’s definitely something weird with his First Mate, but he’s also sure that there is a reason why someone as analytical as she seems to be is acting like this. 

He just can’t put his finger on it.

“That idiot, I told him to be careful.” She hisses, bringing his attention back to the situation at hand, and he winces sympathetically when he sees Luffy screaming something at Buggy about his hat, which lies on the ground near them, looking distinctly worse than at the beginning of the fight.

Even if he didn’t see how panicked his Captain was that morning when his hat almost flew off while Elynna was swimming, Luffy’s anger ( _Zoro doesn’t think he’ll see him lose his cool like that often_ ) at that moment is enough for him to understand that this hat is as important as his own katanas are for him, and apparently the First Mate knows it too.

“I can speak how I want about Shanks! In my whole life, no one has made me madder than that guy!”

“You sure you don’t just have a crush on him?” The girl besides Zoro mutters, and he almost chokes on his saliva.

“Who asked you, little bitch?! Stop spewing nonsense!” 

The girl’s face is saying ‘ah, shit, he heard me’, but she looks absolutely unapologetic.

And clearly, she isn’t, because as soon as Buggy’s story is finished, she opens her mouth again.

“Sounds like a White Knight syndrome to me.”

“Are you _trying_ to get killed? I thought you were supposed to be the careful one!” Zoro hisses, eyes snapping to the blue-haired man to make sure that he didn’t hear anything.

“Well yeah, that’s why I spoke lower this time. Besides, you’re just beside me, and I’m not too bad at dodging. Anyone who’s played a ball game with me would tell you that I’m more likely to avoid the ball than catch it and pass it to a teammate.”

He scoffs in amusement at her deadpan admission, eyes turning back to the weird fight between two users of Devil Fruits (featuring their new navigator).

Eventually, Luffy thrusts his fists in the air with a wide, wild smile.

“Victory!”

He turns around as Nami confirms that she’ll stay with them, since it seems she can earn a lot more by following them. 

( _Zoro thinks she’s probably more of a pirate than any of them on that point._ )

Luffy gives a satisfied nod at this, eyes flying around the street until they stop besides Zoro, who turns around to find Elynna, kneeling next to him and holding the hat up in the air, having apparently used her needle to patch it up.

“Thanks Ann!” Luffy runs up to them to take his treasure on his head, screwing it tightly onto his head.

“I didn’t have the time to finish it, so I’ll do it on the boat.”

“Okay!” He pauses to laugh, seeming to come up with an idea. “You should be our doctor!”

Both Zoro and her snort at the same time.

“For your hat, sure, but the less I have to stab people with a needle, the better off I’ll be. Plus, I have no formation to be a doctor, so I can only do the most basic things. And if you try to eat a weird fungus again, I will have no idea what to do, so don’t think that what I told you the other day isn’t still valid.”

“Fine, fine.” Luffy relents, pouting like a child, before turning to Zoro. “Zoro! Can you stand?”

“Yeah, but I’ll be pretty slow.” He answers, standing up after taking a moment to take stock of the state of his body.

As they are gathering to leave, the rest of the villagers come in, quickly crowding around the mayor when they notice the condition he is in.

“Goodness, please wake up mayor!”

“What the hell happened here?!”

“It’s got to be these pirates!”

“Ah, sorry, that was me.”

Nami immediately yells at Luffy, taken aback by the unexpectedly blunt ( _and stupid, and also needlessly confusing_ ) reply.

“We don’t care about your excuses! How dare you do this to our mayor?!”

“Who are you anyway? Could you be pirates?”

The short-haired girl turns to Zoro and his First Mate for help, but he stays silent, not caring how the situation is solved since they’re about to leave anyway, while the other girl is facing away from them.

He frowns as he sees her shoulders shaking. 

_Is she_ -

“We’re pirates.”

His gaze snaps back to his Captain, and he bursts into a fit of laughter, because really, that guy is just too much.

At least he’s sure that he won’t be bored anytime soon with him.

He lets his Captain take him onto his back, because he sure as hell can’t run away from a mob of villagers who misunderstood his stupid Captain.

None of them expect the sound they hear right then, when Elynna starts _laughing_.

Somehow, Zoro thought that if he ever ended up hearing her laugh, it would be a quiet, restrained sound.

But it’s not.

Instead, he finds himself hearing something loud that can’t seem to stop, the curve of her open mouth digging dimples in the chubby flesh of her cheeks, and for the first time he notices that her hair and eyes aren’t black, but something between blue and green -for the first time the white of her skin doesn’t look ghostly. 

Her cheeks turn apple red, and it’s not long before Luffy takes hold of her hand to make sure that she doesn’t stagger face first into the ground, because she doesn't look like she will calm down any time soon, and running while laughing seems to be beyond her too.

When Nami turns right in another street, Zoro has to hit Luffy upside the head for him to follow suit, since he almost runs straight into a wall, too busy staring at his First Mate’s smiling face with something like pride as he also starts laughing openly.

Zoro’s head thumps against his Captain’s shoulder, and he prays that they’ll make it to the pier alive.

They do, and as the island is fading in the horizon, Nami realises that she only has one bag of treasure.

“What do you mean you left it on the island?! There was five million berries in that bag, you idiot!”

“But since the village was destroyed, they’ll need money to rebuild it!”

“I don’t care! It was my treasure!”

“Argh! Don’t do that! I can’t swim!”

“That’s exactly why I’m doing it, stupid pirate!”

“I’m really sorry! I’ve realised my mistake! Please spare me!”

“Don’t you dare do it again!”

Zoro watches as Elynna, who barely managed to calm down, bursts into another fit of giggles, arm holding onto her probably burning stomach, and he can’t help but join in, blithely ignoring Luffy’s pleas for help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK, so Elynna is also into sex jokes… To be honest things kind of got out of hand on this one, because that’s not my usual sense of humour, but oh well. Now I understand why some people say that their characters write themselves. 
> 
> Luffy is very proud to have made Elynna initiate (affectionate) physical contact.  
> It took a few days vs a few months (at least) for Ace. 
> 
> Progress.
> 
> Once they get a real ship, I’ll start doing some original moments in between the different arcs and islands! (If I can be satisfied with what I come up with.)
> 
> See you in the next chapter, and I wish you the best for this week!


	6. FIVE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the author victimises Zoro again. 
> 
> Laughter and bonding aplenty, and the tip of Usopp’s nose appears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helloooo! I hope everyone has been doing well. Here's the weekly chapter (although I'm getting closer to the end of my stock...), which is admittedly a filler with bonding moments but not much action (on the One Piece scale). 
> 
> As usual, thank you to everyone who dropped by to read or comment!
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, so anything that you see in this fic and that you can recognise as belonging to One Piece is not mine. If I did own it, I wouldn't have to write fanfiction. Duh.

**From The Sea - Dive|rgence**

  
  


**FIVE**

  
  


_My mouth feels dry as laughter dribbles out of it_

_and my cheeks hurt_

_I thought this stream was forever_

_drained-_

_There’s so little that reaches it through the swamp around me_

_and for one drop that falls in there are_

_ten, a hundred that want to kiss my eyes goodbye_

_and leave me exhausted_

_(life is not black, just_

_a mist of grey through which_

_I can hear the colourful screams of other lives_

_-I wonder what a rainbow looks like, sounds like)_

_For you and for me, I wonder if it’s a good thing_

_that you’re so special_

_(I wonder if happiness is better than the grey, silent void_

_when it walks hand in hand with tragedy)_

  
  


**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

  
  


Once she finally calms down, Elynna finds herself wondering how long it has been since she last laughed like this.

When the answer doesn’t come to her immediately, she decides that it’s best to conclude that no one she knows has the sort of humour -or stupidity- to make her laugh that loud.

Her father… doesn’t make many jokes, but regularly comes home with a story about a clumsy colleague of his and the incidents they get involved in at least once a week.

Her mother has the same dark humour as she does, which is more likely to make people snicker than really laugh.

Her uncle is more on the drama queen side, exaggerating purposefully what he does and says. But she doesn’t see him often, as he works long hours and doesn’t take much time off.

Her sister tells boisterous stories of the reckless stunts she pulls -and isn’t that a frightening thought for the rest of them considering that she’s barely started to drink alcohol.

The thought comes to her once again that she really has nothing to do here, that it would be much better for everyone involved if her sister was the one brought here, that she wishes her sister was the one stuck alone and wondering whether she’s dead, dreaming, or in someone else’s body, wondering if anything she says or does or thinks comes from her or the god of this world-

She stops.

Having selfish thoughts is okay, but her sister has nothing to do with Elynna somehow finding herself into a fictional world, and while it’s true that she would make a much better Straw Hats pirate than her, this is just bitter and uncalled for.

( _She’s not surprised that her mind came to this conclusion, though._

_She’s always been jealous of her little sibling._

_Jealous of her, and anyone else who doesn’t hesitate to show what they’re feeling even if it might make them rude, of the way she sometimes talks back to their parents and teachers, whether she’s in the wrong or not, while_ she _sits and takes it, dissecting every word in her mind to judge for herself whether she agrees with the other person or not, without ever managing to wrench her voice past the fear and the internalised rules that filter everything. While she is stuck knowing that she has a good family, parents that are more than willing to listen to her, but somehow she can't talk, can't show anything, because it just feels like she will be an unnecessary burden, and she doesn't know how close she can, how close she's_ supposed _to be with her own family._

_Jealous of her, and anyone else who has a passion that always makes their mood better, that makes them want to give everything they have, that gives them something to do with their life, when she’s always struggling to decide what to do and which path to take, because she has no idea where she’s going, no idea of where she_ wants _to go, because even the one activity that she keeps practicing since childhood cannot motivate her enough for her to enter competitions or the professional level. It feels stupidly reckless and irrational, to bet her life on such small probabilities._ And then there are the days where she wonders ~~what is the fucking point of all this, of liv~~ -)

_Yup, time to stop thinking._

She blinks the thoughts away and stands up, deciding to take a look at what is available in the cabin of Nami's boat. Since she can't see the other girl anywhere, she knocks on the door to be sure that she can come in. She honestly can't believe the number of times something awkward happens in books and movies when _all you have to do is knock, damnit_.

“Yeah?”

“Nami-san, it’s Elynna. Can I come in?”

“Oh, yes, of course!”

The cabin, it turns out, includes a cupboard with dry food and some more perishable stuff, a bathtub, and two beds.

“There are water supplies there, but since the guys I stole this from were already at sea when I met them, they’re not full, so we should probably prioritise drinking it over using it for showers.” Nami informs her, pointing at several barrels in a corner.

“Agreed. Also, I’m telling you right now, but we have to make sure that the Captain doesn’t have access to the pantry alone, or he probably won’t be able to help himself.”

“Somehow, I’m not very surprised.”

“He _is_ pretty easy to read -most of the time. Do you know where the closest island is? So we can restock.”

The pretty thief waves her over to the table set against a wall, where she already spread out a map.

“I think we should be able to reach the Gecko Islands in a few days, three to five depending on the weather conditions, but as of now they are pretty good.” She sums up, elegant fingers pointing at their position and that of their destination on the map.

Elynna nods, eyes flickering to the slightly longer strand of tangerine red hair that is brushing against Nami’s cheek and then to her slender, creamy neck that is left uncovered by her short hair and the low neckline of her top.

Nami is _really_ gorgeous.

… Why does everyone on this crew so far _have_ to look nice on top of their already pretty great personalities?

( _It makes it even harder to not get too close._ )

While Nami starts looking closely at how much water they have so as to estimate roughly how much each of them can use per day, Elynna makes an inventory of all the food they have, before writing down a planner for a similar purpose, letting a part of her mind wander.

In the end, she stayed with the Straw Hats. Well, they _were_ being hunted down by a mob of angry villagers, but the final showdown against Buggy’s crew gave her some time to think. Considering how she came into this world, she thinks that the… sea dreams she had -twice already- can probably give her some clues as to the reason why she was brought here, especially since they are from someone else’s point of view. Staying on the sea, with a crew that plans to navigate all over the world would thus logically be her best bet.

As for the emotional side of it… Well, her best hope is to keep a more professional than friendly relationship so that at least they would be less hurt if she ends up leaving. Frankly, though, she has her doubts regarding her ability to keep her guard up, especially with Monkey D. Luffy as her Captain and the physical closeness that comes with a life spent mostly on a boat.

She has already slipped up more than once. Minor slip-ups, but still.

And the worst is that they don’t seem to mind what they have already seen.

Although, granted, her largely inexistent social life is less due to her awful personality than her inability to approach people in the first place.

The sound of metallic objects clinking against each other makes her turn to see that her… coworker has gone on to inspect the amount of treasure she has left.

She pauses in her own work, remembering Nami’s reaction to discovering that half of her loot is gone. The expression on her face… it was beyond simple anger or greed. There was urgency in her eyes, and something strained and hoarse in her screams that sounded a bit too much like old despair as far as Elynna is concerned. 

The thief might love money, but something is not quite right here, especially considering her apparent hatred for all things pirate and the fact that she did not technically accept to join the crew ( _and she’s sure that she is supposed to, because there probably aren’t many other drop-dead gorgeous, red-haired navigators in the anime_ ).

“... Sorry for what the Captain did. I hope it’s not too unconvenient for what you wanted to do with the money.” She eventually speaks up carefully, watching Nami’s back for her reaction since her face is hidden from her view.

“Oh. Well… It’s not like I’m on a time limit or anything.” The redhead shrugs, but Elynna is pretty sure that the line of her shoulders is more tense now, and she’s too familiar with the use of irony to not notice the lilt of bitterness that the flow of her voice is stumbling around.

Her eyes narrow.

“How long are you going to stick with us? If you have a specific destination, you should tell us so that we know how long we can benefit from your knowledge.” She makes sure to keep her tone light so as to not sound so intrusive, but now Nami’s shoulders are _definitely_ tense.

“... I don’t really have one for the moment.” She eventually answers, but Elynna doesn’t need to see her face to understand that she’s clearly not comfortable with the direction this conversation is taking, maybe even suspicious.

“Oh, well I guess it’s all the better for us, then.”

And she drops it -if only because she wishes that some people who came to talk to her on many occasions would just leave her alone instead. It’s not in her nature to pry when people don’t want to confide in her, and she doesn’t think herself sly enough to wrangle more information from someone so guarded and so smart -since she has obviously been stealing from pirates and navigating on her own for a long time. Besides...

Rule Number One: most shōnen main characters have a tragic backstory. 

( _She doesn’t believe she is strong enough to support someone else through their problems when she can barely keep herself afloat._ )

She hangs her planner on the doorknob of the food cupboard, and walks out to find her Captain about to splash his swordsman with seawater to wake him up from his nap. She stops him just in time with the ‘badly wounded person there’ card, and drags him on the other end of the smaller boat to take care of the few cuts on his face from his fight against Buggy. When Nami comes out with their dinner, she makes sure to watch her words and not stare at her too much -no matter how pretty she is- so as to not make her more uncomfortable or distrustful.

Considering Zoro’s condition, he is automatically granted one of the two beds for the night. Eventually, it’s decided that Nami will get the second one, that she pushes against the pantry to be sure that there won’t be any Luffy-induced accident. She explains to Elynna that they shouldn’t need to change directions for the night, and that years of navigating have made her sleep rather light anyway, so she’ll come out to check on things from time to time.

Sleeping next to Luffy is both entertaining and a nightmare, because as monotone as her answers are, he still keeps babbling about this and that, about how strong Zoro is, how great she is, how cool Nami is, how he wishes he can eat meat… At some point, she just gives up and invests herself in the conversation, because otherwise she just feels awfully dismissive. She finds herself asking questions about the village he comes from, how he came to eat the Gomu Gomu no Mi ( _she’s only half… actually she’s not surprised at all_ ) and telling him that _yeah, ok, Zoro-san is strong, but he’s as stupidly reckless as you are_.

She doesn’t know how long they’ve been talking when he turns to lie on his stomach, legs kicking through the air as he props his chin on his arms.

“Hey, Ann.”

“Yeah?”

“What does it look like?” He asks with a jab of his chin towards the dark mirror beneath the boat, glowing silver under the moon and the stars that shine brightly in the cloud-free sky.

She hums pensively at that, thinking that she would probably hate to find herself unable to swim, especially now, when she has been enjoying it for years. So she tells him about swimming and how she thinks it’s a bit like flying, about getting lost in a forest of seaweed, about the days where she can’t see anything because the sand is swirling lazily everywhere, about the fishes whose scales shine and gleam and change colours, and that one who has a light bulb coming out of his forehead because he lives so deep in the sea that everything is tainted black, forever and always.

( _“Ohhhhh! I wanna see that! When did you see one?!_

_She tilts her head, amused but puzzled by the notion._

_“I didn’t. The human body can’t handle the level of pressure, or take enough air to swim that deep. I just saw it in a book.”_

_Now it’s his turn to look puzzled -and a bit disappointed- as he mimics her position._

_“I thought you came from there.”_

_She’s not so amused anymore._

_Still, she smiles._

It’s painful.

_“Well, I do think that I was already pretty far from home when I met you.”_

_Eventually, he falls asleep, leaving her to stare at the stars and play some song or another over and over in her mind like a broken record until she doesn’t feel like bursting apart at the seams anymore._ )

Nami comes out twice to check that they are not veering off their path before Elynna actually falls asleep. 

When she wakes up, her Captain is not lying on top of her -which is good, but he’s nowhere on the deck either, nor on the other boat -which is bad.

It doesn’t take long for her to realise that he apparently thought that trying to ride a dolphin with their mooring rope _when you can’t swim_ is a _great_ idea. Already running to dive into the sea, she barely hears Nami’s scream as the other girl comes out yawning and sees the boy jump around on the back of the animal.

She ends up having to race the dolphin because it glides away swiftly just after she emerges, keeping herself just behind him to catch the Devil Fruit user when his grip on the rope loosens enough for him to be sent tumbling backwards.

On the plus side, it gives her an occasion to test the limits of this body, and so once she brings him back to the boats and checks that he’s doing okay, she takes advantage of the fact that she’s already drenched to go swim some laps and test how much faster and endurant she can be.

When she comes back, she finds herself face to face with one very angry Nami who is trying to drown the smaller boy -again, while Zoro, who moved out to nap under the sun, steadfastly refuses to open his eyes and ackowledge his Captain’s situation.

She sees the way Nami is making sure that only his longer strands of hair are touching the surface of the sea at most, the way he is just flailing his limbs around rather than actively trying to knock his attacker away, and allows herself to feel amusement.

“Please don’t drown our Captain, Nami-san. He’s pretty funny to be around.”

“Ann, save meeeeee!”

“He tried to steal some food!”

“Ah, don’t mind me. Please keep going.”

“Nooooooooo!”

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

They’re eating lunch when her Captain blurts out his question, staring at her.

“Why don’t you laugh?”

Everyone stops eating, and she frowns in confusion. Unless she missed a part of the conversation, no one said anything funny.

“... I’m sorry?” 

She doesn’t know if she’s asking for his explanation or his forgiveness.

“It was nice hearing you laugh yesterday.” He simply says as he munches on the last of his food, staring at her with an unreadable expression, and she can’t grasp what he’s thinking.

She looks at the two others, but their gaze is similarly curious and expectant.

“I just… don’t laugh often?” She answers, still unsure of what she’s supposed to say.

She doesn’t _understand_.

Does he want her to laugh more, even if there’s nothing funny? She never meant to almost stop laughing at some point of her life.

Has he noticed that she’s trying to distance herself and wants her to stop? When it comes to emotional intelligence, she’s pretty sure that he’s smart enough for that.

“That sucks.” He decides with an annoyed pout.

She wonders if he’s saying that for her or for him, wonders if she should feel hurt, because her throat is closing up and her eyes are burning.

( _But nothing hurts._ )

She blinks the tears away, presses down on the slimy ball of negative things stuck in her throat until she can breath normally, and shrugs.

“You’re the one who told me you didn’t like it when I do fake things. Why are you getting annoyed at me with this?”

He stares at her some more, before shrugging.

“Ah, that’s true.”

Zoro sticks another forkful of food in his mouth now that he’s sure that his First Mate won’t burst into tears or screams every time his Captain is being insensitive.

“Well, I could certainly do with less sex jokes.” He grumbles, since they’re on the subject.

Nami looks up, startled, and meets Elynna’s eyes.

_Does he…?_ She mouths.

_Get embarassed? Hell yeah._ She mouths back, watching gleefully as the navigator’s curiosity transforms into something downright wicked.

_Can that girl get anymore perfect?_

“With less what?”

The three of them stop eating again, this time to stare at Luffy’s nonplussed expression.

Zoro topples backwards, clearly deciding that he’s done with this entire conversation.

“I fucking knew it.” Elynna groans, head thumping against her kneecap as she remembers the future King of Pirates’ confusion when she previously made jokes having anything to do with sex. “And here I thought I could avoid this by not having kids.”

And on that note, she takes hold of her food in one hand, her Captain’s wrist in the other, and marches straight towards the largest boat’s cabin.

“Come on, Captain. _Let’s have a Talk_.”

Luffy blinks, watching as Nami cheerily waves at him, and feeling like his First Mate’s voice has gotten somewhat threatening.

The door slams behind them.

“So,” Nami purrs as she turns back to the green-haired man, “who gave you the Talk?”

Zoro slouches further in his seat, seriously considering knocking himself out and _shit, now there’s another one_.

Nami sniggers at his reaction, taking advantage of his closed eyes to steal the last of his bread.

_This is gonna be fun._

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

When Elynna eventually comes out, Nami and Zoro are loudly bickering about the way Zoro turned the helm of one of the boats ( _according to Nami it wasn't the direction she gave him_ **_at all_** ), she’s alone, and it has been a Long Time since she first entered with the rubber man -more than an hour for sure.

“Zoro-san, whether you’re ‘useless with directions’, as Nami-san says, is irrelevant. She’s the navigator, so she’s probably right anyway.” She smoothly cuts across their insults, which have strayed entirely off-topic.

Nami smirks at him in satisfaction, before directing her teasing gaze to the other girl.

“What, did you illustrate your explanation to Luffy too?”

Zoro groans aloud, already foreseeing the hell they will both put him through.

Elynna clicks her tongue against the roof of her mouth, looking very serious about the whole thing.

“I talked about reproduction, respect and consent, safety, respect and consent, sexual and gender identity, respect and consent, kinks, respect and consent... Fried his brain for about the next few hours, so at least we have some peace, and the food is safe until the power comes back in his brain.”

The other girl’s gaze turns appreciative at that.

The rest of the afternoon passes by quietly, conversation rising and falling here and there like lazy waves ( _not too much that they can’t each focus on their own task, but not too little that she finds herself wondering if she should speak about something -anything_ ). Zoro cleans up his katana, and Elynna reads the newspaper before passing it over to Nami -who is studying the map of the Grand Line- when she’s done and taking the rubber man’s hat to finish patching it up, adding a string to it so it doesn’t fly off again. Luffy comes out just in time for dinner, still looking mind-boggled with all the information crammed into his head but his stomach having won over his mind.

He’s much more cheerful and loud by the time they finish eating, and manages to wrangle a bed for himself while Zoro is assigned the other one, his wound being almost -but not yet- healed.

( _She still can’t quite make herself believe it, and will probably keep avoiding to touch his left side for much longer than everyone else._ )

Aware of the importance of the skill, she gathers the courage to ask Nami, who is the best person for this, to teach her to estimate the time depending on the position of the sun or the moon. In the process, she discovers that the constellations of this world are entirely different from the ones back home, although there are a few that are similar. 

She can barely recognise the shapes that Nami points out to her, though. _That_ doesn’t change from her home world either. 

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

Their second day at sea begins much more calmly than the first one. Which, granted, isn’t too hard, but since Luffy is still with them, it was kind of a bet.

Zoro is declared to be fully healed, so of course he immediately decides to take up his training by lifting the barrels of water and other crates of food.

She gives up on trying to stop him, but makes sure to tell him to stop if he feels any amount of pain in his side, and to not be stupid and keep going because that’s the best way to make the damage even longer, if not impossible to heal.

His answer is to order her to shut up and sit on his back while he does his push-ups.

She sighs, and obeys, sitting cross-legged on his naked back with the newspaper of the day in her hands. On the smaller, less stable boat, Nami seems to be busy drawing a map, while Luffy is busy… drawing _whatever the hell he’s supposed to be drawing_.

Not that she blames him. She’s pretty good at putting together colours in a way that is nice to look at, but completely hopeless at drawing anything better than the most schematic patterns.

She doesn’t read much of the newspaper, a part of her mind focusing attentively for any sign of pain in Zoro’s movements or breathing, and the other appreciating the way his muscles shift beneath her with each push-up, the cloth covering her legs the only thing separating his skin from hers.

Luckily, her tendency to unconsciouly wear a constant poker face also works in this kind of situation, otherwise Nami would definitely notice -and blackmail her.

In the end, though, she’s probably the one for whom the experience ends up being the most painful, because when he’s done Zoro pushes on his hand to come straight into a standing position… Meaning that she crashes down from his back and into the deck.

There’s a stretch of silence.

Luffy, who was chatting with Zoro about their respective -insane- training techniques, bursts out laughing, so much so that he ends up flopping onto his back because he can’t sit straight anymore.

Nami, who raised her head at the noise, curious to see what caused it, tries to hold in her chortles, but it doesn’t last long.

“Shit! Uh, sorry, Elynna. You were so still that I kind of... forgot you were there.”

She doesn’t answer, face hidden by her newspaper.

The other two calm down a bit at the absolute lack of noise from her end.

“Elynna?”

Still no answer.

Now frowning worriedly, Zoro tears the cover off her face, only to meet the very unimpressed stare of the pale-skinned girl.

“It’s the first time someone calls me light, but somehow it feels a bit insulting.” She mutters dryly.

Zoro sighs in relief, and promptly shoves the newspaper back onto her face before she can embarass him any further.

“Argh, what the hell!” Her muffled scream can still be heard.

“I wanna fight too!” Luffy screams back excitedly.

“We’re not fighting, you id-”

The rest dissolves into incomprehensible noise as Luffy screams again while jumping on his two crewmates, who also scream when he knocks into them since they didn’t see him coming at them.

Nami starts laughing again.

“Guys… the boat… will capsize!” She shouts between gasps of laughter.

Neither boy hears her, but Elynna does, so she makes to join her on the smaller boat when she manages to wrangle herself out of the wrestling game going on.

Except Luffy doesn’t agree at all, and stretches his arm to catch her, not paying attention to the strength he puts into it as his arm snaps back to normal.

The boat doesn’t capsize, but it rocks enough to send the three of them into the ocean.

Since her treasure isn’t at risk, Nami just laughs even louder.

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

Elynna saves Luffy from drowning again, but since both times were his fault, she mercilessly guilt-trips him into giving up a bed to her that night.

“You’ve already taken a bed for two nights, and we’ll probably reach the next island the day after tomorrow! You’re not even injured anymore!” 

“Yeah, but I’ve been napping on the deck for the whole afternoon-”

“You could just take the bed at that moment, then! Besides, girls deal with their period every month, so you should be able to get over a bit of back pain, since you’re so strong!” Nami cuts him off, perfectly aware of what she’s doing by bringing up ‘girl stuff’ in front of someone like Zoro, who fares much better when he doesn’t have to hear about it.

He scowls at her, knowing what she’s doing and furious that it’s working ( _the tip of his ears just might be burning, and he really,_ really _wants to back out of this, except this is also a fight, and- pride_ ).

“It has nothing to-”

“You’re coming, Nami-san?” Elynna steps up beside the redhead.

“Why should it be her?” Zoro’s scowl deepens.

“Well, cause we wanna fuck.”

Her point-blank reply has the effect of shutting him up long enough for her to drag a gaping Nami into the cabin with her.

She closes the door behind them, and suddenly realises something. Praying that she didn’t cross a line, she whirls around, but she can’t see much of Nami’s face with what little moonlight comes in through the round windows.

“Sorry, Nami-san. I shouldn’t have made a joke implying you’re gay -or anything else- before asking you first.” She’s quick to say, desperate to make up for her potential mistake.

( _If she doesn’t say sorry_ now, _she knows that she won’t do it, that she’ll just avoid her and stop looking or even speaking to her to make sure that she doesn’t say or do anything else to piss her off-_

_she knows that she’ll just wait for her angry outburst like some kind of stupid atonement._

_And if even_ one _member of the Straw Hats becomes seriously resentful towards her, who’s to say that they’ll keep her, the girl who is supposed to be second only to the Captain but has no useful skill to speak of?_

_-because as soon as they find the animal whom she remembers to be their doctor, the poor job that she’s doing in his place will be worth even less, and she’s never been good at selling herself._ )

“It’s okay. I _am_ a lesbian, anyway.” Nami tells her instead.

Elynna blinks at that, caught off-guard. Romance really isn’t a focus of One Piece though, so it isn’t like this is an information that goes against Nami’s canon character.

Her eyes are getting used to the darkness, enough for her to notice that Nami seems somewhat startled with her own admission, which makes her guess that this world is probably heteronormative too.

“I’m bisexual.” She offers as a reassurance.

“Really?”

“Yep. Y’ know, twice as much choice, and all that.” She moves to one of the beds, letting her hair down and placing her hairband on the table on the way there.

“As if you could choose.” Nami’s voice taunts, and Elynna can almost see her eyes rolling upwards in exasperated amusement as she hears her shuffle towards her own bed.

“Aw, Nami-san, don’t tell me that you didn’t choose not to be attracted to males.” She jokes back.

“Nope, it’s just that men are only good for me to manipulate them into giving me their treasure.” The redhead huffs, playfully haughty.

“Now you’re just taking advantage of the fact that the two men we have here are total blockheads.”

Their eyes meet.

“Zoro’s face, though…” Nami whispers, and Elynna isn’t sure if it's mischievousness or moonlight that make her eyes sparkle, but it sure is hot.

Her words are enough to send them into peals of laughter.

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

The both of them take gleeful delight in messing up their hair when they step out the morning after. It’s absolutely worth the time they -and especially Elynna- will have to spend taming it back to normal, considering that they get to see Zoro’s cheeks become red enough to be visible through his heavy tan.

He glares at them through the whole breakfast, so Elynna refuses to sit on his back again, because she’s not _that_ stupid, thank you. She’s not in a hurry to fall a second time -especially if it’s planned.

Instead, she starts writing down what has happened so far in her notebook -including her strange daydreams- in case she ever needs precise information.

It’s not until Luffy flops on her back to peek over her shoulder and makes a confused noise that she realises she wrote everything in her own language.

This catches Nami’s attention, and the both of them start throwing random words and sentences at her to translate, Zoro adding his own here and there between two sit-ups. 

She stops them when Nami reaches the point where she’s asking her how to call some kind of meteorological phenomenon, because first of all she has no freaking idea how she’s supposed to call that, and because _what the hell, there’s no island in her home world where the rain starts floating at random and how does that even_ work _?_

The afternoon is even hotter than the morning despite the slight breeze that keeps them moving, so all of them end up sprawled over either deck, soaking up the heat after a nice dive in the sea. 

Drowsy as they are, Luffy’s absence is only noticed when he comes back wrapped in some of the jewellery of Nami’s loot, his megawatt smile honestly almost outdone by the way all this gold and these gems are hit and reflected by the rays of light. Almost.

“Shishishi! Look guys! I found my crown for when I’ll be the King of Pirates!”

“My eyes…” Elynna moans dramatically in answer, throwing an arm over her face. 

“King of Idiots is more like it.” Zoro grumbles from his position a foot away.

Nami shrieks in horror, and from the yelp they hear afterwards, she probably jumped on Luffy.

Elynna snorts, and finds herself agreeing with the swordsman’s assessment, because clearly their Captain did not learn his lesson the first time around.

Somehow, most of the jewels -but not Luffy- end up thrown into the sea. This leads to a competition between Zoro, who decided that fetching them was a good training exercise, and Nami ( _because duh, treasure_ ) to see who brought back the most, supported by Luffy’s loud encouragement and comments. As for Elynna, she goes back to her nap, since she hates competition, and she took her first shower in two days when she last came back from the sea.

That night, both her Zoro end up sleeping outside, his calm breathing and her awareness of the fact that he isn’t that much of a talker either giving her enough quiet to focus, as she works on memorising the names and faces of the important figures quoted in the newspapers she read so far, as well as a few places ( _although she probably won’t remember where the islands are precisely, as it is one thing that she somehow never really managed to print into her mind_ ).

“If we really want to go to the Grand Line, we need to plan things better!” Nami tells them the next morning.

Zoro and Luffy agree, but somehow understand it as having to do with meat and sake of all things.

“That’s not what I mean! We can always restock on that when stopping at an island. I’m telling you that there’s no way we can survive there without a real ship. And we’re probably too short on crewmembers on top of it. The first thing we should do is find a bigger, better equipped ship!”

“I second that.” Elynna raises her hand as she comes out of the cabin. “And we can probably start looking soon, because I think I see the island you were talking about, Nami-san.”

“Meat!” Luffy clamors, almost throwing himself from the boat if not for Zoro’s grip on the back of his shirt.

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

Hidden behind a fallen tree trunk, Usopp observes the four Buggy pirates who are in the process of stretching their muscles. Despite the distance, his acute vision makes it easy to pick out most details.

The boy with the straw hat looks pretty dumb, but Usopp notices the lean muscles that flex when he waves his arms around excitedly. Combined with the fact that the other, green-haired one has three katana, is much taller and probably twice as large as him -all in muscles, Usopp decides that he should definitely keep some distance between them and him ( _he has excellent hand-eye coordination, but he sucks at hand-to-hand fighting -not that the has many occasions to practice i_ ).

As for the two girls… Well, he thinks that they don’t look too dangerous -apart from the red-haired one who looks dangerously pretty, but he’s a liar, so he wouldn’t judge someone only based on their appearance. It would be stupid of him.

( _He might be ridiculous, but being stupid is another thing entirely._ )

He sends a signal to the three members of his crew who start moving, and gulps when he sees the swordsman tense despite them being as silent as they can.

For a moment, he wonders if this is a bad idea, if he should send Tamanegi to the village instead ( _with the two others, because they’re his crew, his responsibility, his to protect-_ ).

Then he steels himself, because these are just four enemies, and maybe there won’t even be a real fight.

… Not to mention, they are still far enough to run if it doesn’t work, and him and his crew are the ones standing on the cliff, so they have a strategic advantage -beyond the fact that they know this place like the back of their hands.

He gets to his feet, and fires several shots at the feet of the boy wearing a red shirt ( _not at the most intimidating one, but not at the weakest-looking one either_ ).

And when they all calm down enough to look up to him, he sends another signal to his crewmates to raise the pirate flags they prepared in advance, and blurts out the lie that is most likely to get them to leave: that this island is already taken, and strongly guarded.

The smaller guy’s reaction is encouraging… Probably? ( _He seems to believe it, but Usopp clearly did_ not _mean for his lie to make him excited. More like scared._ )

The swordsman and the pretty girl both raise an eyebrow simultaneously. He wonders if he should interpret it as a sign that they work often together, before realising that he should probably worry more about the disbelief etched onto their face.

The other girl is probably the weirdest of the four. She’s certainly not as pretty as the other one, but there’s something strinking about her all the same, perhaps in the contrast between the darkness of her hair and eyes and the unnatural paleness of her skin. But the most disquieting for Usopp, at that moment, is the way she _looks_ at him.

( _Not cruel or cold._

_Not nice or amused or excited._

_She’s just… watching him._

_But there’s a weight to it, something intent_

_-like she knows something about him that he doesn’t._ )

“He’s lying.” The redhead claims.

His blood freezes in his veins, then makes a full circle in his body in less than a second.

He feels dizzy. Which is probably why he opens his mouth and betrays his own words without thinking.

Ninjin and the two others promptly run away, and despite how bad he wants to follow them ( _despite how his eyes can’t seem to focus on any of them, trying to pinpoint where the first attack will come from, despite the way his knees are shaking and he thinks his heart might burst_ ), he finds himself lifting his weapon in a last attempt to convince them to leave.

“Bet your life on it. This isn’t just something you can use to scare people.” The dark-haired guy says, and suddenly, looking up at him from under the brim of his hat which casts planes of shadow across his face and along the curve of his smirk, he doesn’t look dumb at all anymore -and absolutely terrifying.

Beside him, the swordsman unsheathes an inch of one of his katanas, and the small, clicking noise makes Usopp’s heart constrict in his chest. He has to readjust his grip since his hands are now covered in sweat at the sight of this little portion of metal that can cut his slingshot, his body, his friends, _Miss Kaya-_

“Ahhhhhh, real pirates are so cool. I give up.” He breathes out, collapsing on the ground.

Suddenly, the smirk that says _I’m dying to cut somebody up_ is gone, and the other guy laughs ( _it sounds dumb, but a nice rather than a cruel kind of dumb in Usopp’s opinion_ ).

“I just borrowed that from Shanks! By the way, aren’t you Yasopp’s son?”

Now Usopp’s heart is constricting for an entirely different -and preferable- reason, and he finds himself walking with the four pirates along the path leading to the only restaurant of Syrup Village as Luffy, the Captain ( _who seems somewhat obsessed with meat_ ), tells him about how he met _the_ Shanks’ crew, and how his father was part of it -and a damn good sharpshooter.

The other guy -Zoro- and one of the girls -Nami- throw in a comment here and there, but it’s only when there’s a lull in the conversation that Usopp notices that the woman who is apparently Luffy’s First Mate has yet to say a word.

She’s hanging at the back of the group, looking at them without any sign that she wants to participate. 

He can’t tell if she’s shy or if she’s just not a talker, because her face is just- blank. Bland.

To Usopp, it somehow feels like the muscles of her face maybe just _can’t move or express anything_ -it feels **wrong**.

( _She almost seems to be more of a spectator than an active member of the group, and among the vivid colours of the three people she’s with and of the beautiful landscape of his beloved homeplace, she looks… colourless._

_Like a ghost._

_He’s always been terrified whenever someone tells ghost stories._ )

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

Discovering that Usopp is on this island leads Elynna to the conclusion that her first theory concerning the strange sea dreams she’s having, according to which they may be somehow related to the fact that this is a world of fiction with a specific timeline, is probably wrong, as she did not have any preceding the appearance of such an important character. 

She somewhat expected it, though, given that her presence itself is messing with the original flow of events. 

(- _she’s not supposed to be_ here-)

Her mind bounces between the two or three other possibilities she came up with, but there’s nothing on this island that can support one of them more than the others, so she turns to appreciating being on land again. She notices for the first time that the air tastes noticeably different compared to her home world’s ( _not knowing anyone living in the countryside means that she never really experienced the difference between that and the urban area_ ), and turns to speculating on who could be ‘the children of that one’. 

It doesn’t feel to her like the way one would speak of a regular family, feels more like-

A flick on her forehead makes her blink and realise that they have reached what seems to be a restaurant, and her Captain is standing in front of her. He seems to have taken to doing that when he thinks that she’s being silent or thoughtful for too long ( _they probably don’t have the same definition of ‘too long’_ ).

He drags her in by her wrist, sits her beside him and tucks himself into her side for the whole meal even as he tells stories of Usopp’s father while she eats quietly, pushing his hand away when he tries to steal some of her food because _excuse me, not having an extandable stomach doesn’t mean that I’m not hungry too_.

Hearing stories about Usopp’s father, she finds herself wondering where his mother is. But considering that the subject did not come up even once in the conversation, though it would be natural, she decides that she’s better off keeping that question to herself.

She listens to the conversation this time, and it flows pretty easily until Nami asks they be led to the mansion Zoro noticed earlier, and immediately Usopp’s whole demeanour changes as flips out on them, gives them a flimsy excuse when he realises his slip-up, and runs out of the building before they can ask him more about it.

“What’s the matter with him?” Nami blinks in surprise as she leans out of her chair to stare at the fading figure with furrowed brows.

“I don’t know, but I doubt we’ll get a ship from whoever lives in this mansion as things are.” Elynna shrugs, tearing off a piece of bread to wipe the sauce off her plate with.

“Huh? Why?” Luffy looks confused as he leans his head back against her arm to stare at her.

“We’re a bunch of strangers who came on a boat with a pirate flag. Unless they’re looking for a way to do away with a fully-equipped ship, they have no reason to grant our request, unless we threaten them into it, or make it so that they owe us a favour. A big one.”

“We’re not threatening them.” 

Nami’s voice is clipped, like simply hearing the idea pisses her off.

Elynna doesn’t have the time to tell her that she wasn’t trying to imply they should, interrupted by the arrival of three kids, claiming to be ‘the Usopp pirate crew’ and loudly demanding to know what they have done with their Captain.

She sighs at the noise, and no matter how much she tells herself that they’re kids, she can’t help but think that if she and the three others _really_ intended to hurt someone on this island, this would be a highly stupid move on their part.

“The meat was so delicious, right?” Luffy comments sunnily -and perfectly on time.

“A bit too bony, I think.” She answers off-handedly, not at all sorry for what she’s doing.

( _Her dislike for kids is as irrational as it is strong. She doesn’t bother to do much about it, since she doesn’t deal with young children often enough to burn through her quota of patience, no matter how low it is._ )

Zoro, clearly willing to follow her on this, smirks down at them darkly.

“If it’s your Captain you want… We ate him.”

“Cave witches!” They scream at both her and Nami.

“Thanks.” Her smirk is utterly self-satisfied, and she can hear Zoro snort from across the table.

“Why are you looking at me?!!” Nami snaps, clearly not as pleased as Elynna is with the comparison. “And _you_! Why would you even be happy to be called a witch?!”

“Witches are badass.”

“Really?” Luffy perks up beside her.

“You bet. They make potions that can heal or kill super easily, throw thunder at you or transform you into a mouse. Among other things.”

“So cool! I wanna meet one!” 

He’s bouncing in his seat now, ready to run out and search the whole island for a witch.

Frankly, she wouldn’t mind meeting a witch either. 

_Especially if she’s pretty and likes girls._

_Being sent to a world where people have weird powers has_ got _to have its perks after all._

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

“Hellooooo? A pirate ship, please.”

“So he’s been coming here for a year to tell stories to that girl to cheer her up?” Nami thouroughly ignores Luffy, looking up at the lavish mansion behind the closed gates.

“First love…” Elynna sighs from her spot next to her, tone faux-wistful.

“Right?! It’s so cute! Do you think he saw her from afar when he was a child?” The pirate thief asks excitedly.

“Oh yeah, totally, let’s add love at first sight and childhood sweethearts on top of it.”

Finally catching on the other woman’s thinly-veiled irony, Nami sends her elbow into Elynna’s ribs, making her choke on the laughter that was emerging like a wave of butterflies.

“Seriously…” The redhead crosses her arms and turns away, noise pointed high in the air with disdain and cheeks flushed in embarassment.

Her eyes catch on something red, and suddenly she gapes.

Apparently, Luffy doesn’t want to wait anymore, and doesn’t much care about the very obvious meaning of the gates being closed, because his hands are gripping the bars, and he’s stretching himself away from it.

The kids scream again.

The other members of his group barely have the time to realise what’s happening and to jump to try and stop him -at least in Elynna’s case- before he lets go, the momentum taking them with him instead.

They land, or more precisely crash, right under the window of the girl they came to see.

But Elynna doesn’t really realise it, too busy making sure that no noise is coming out her mouth as she rolls on what she thinks is her stomach. She managed to cradle her head before the impact, but now her whole left side is exploding into painful fire, liquid thunder seeping into the crack of her bones, painting stars across her eyelids, _but it’s not pretty it’s terrifying and she can’t breathecan’tmOvE_ -

“Elynna, what are you doing still lying down?” Nami’s exasperated voice reaches her ears.

She swallows, and then does it again, trying to make her mouth less dry and to bring down the tears and the sobs and the pleas ( _it hurts, it hurts, please stay with me, I want to go_ **_home-_** ), to bring them down somewhere where no one will see them or hear them, where they won’t bother anyone-

( _It’s a tight fit in her throat._ )

“Feel like taking another nap.” She mumbles.

( _And wake up home, where nothing will be hurting like_ this.

~~_Or never wake up again._~~ )

“You and your naps… You’re impossible! Almost as bad as Zoro.” Nami huffs.

“Rude.”

“Now who’s the rude one?” Zoro chips in aggressively.

She doesn’t bother to answer, letting everything going on around her become white noise that she’s barely aware of as she focuses on staying absolutely still and taking short, superficial breaths. The pain subsides to a steady drumming just beneath her skin, like a ticking bomb in her body. It’s enough for a part of her mind to turn outwards and hear a new voice speak.

“I heard that you liked to come up with convoluted stories… I see that it is true. I’ve heard about your father, too. I won’t put anything past the son of a filthy pirate like you. Do not come near the mistress anymore!”

She opens her eyes, relieved to see that her vision is clear again, and takes in the sight of the newcomer, trying desperately not to laugh because the only thought her hazy mind can gather after her once over is that the pattern on his suit jacket looks like poop.

_Shit, is Luff- her Captain rubbing off on her already?_

_…_

_She did_ not _mean to make that pun._

_At all._

“... Filthy?” Usopp’s voice repeats slowly, tight with something like an incoming storm.

Her fingers twitch.

She listens as voices get louder, as the young mistress’ voice fails to calm things down.

“-I thought you would come up with another one of your little lies, like… ‘He’s a travelling salesman’, or ‘we’re not really related’.”

Usopp lunges.

Elynna jumps to her feet.

The fact that she was lying in his path is a good thing, because as soon as she moves she knows that she will be unable to stagger more than a few steps.

It’s also a bad thing, because he doesn’t have the time to stop in his anger, and crashes right into her.

His scream covers the almost-silent gasp that escapes from her mouth ( _not because she’s strong enough to keep it in, but because the pain lunges through her lungs and throat and_ chokes _her voice into almost-silence_ ). 

He flails to keep them both upright, because right now he’s the only thing keeping her from collapsing, although it just looks like she’s doing her best to keep him away. In reality, his surprise seems to have mostly stopped him in his endeavour. Still, just to be sure, she closes her arms around him.

“Don’t. You’ll just be supporting his claim that pirates are all dangerous lowlives.” She whispers.

His whole body clenches and trembles against hers as he’s reminded of what he was trying to do, but he relents, and resolves to use his words instead.

She forces herself to stand upright on her own because she has no reason to keep her weight on him anymore, praying that no one can see or hear the way she’s panting with the effort it takes her, the way her shoulders and thighs are trembling under the weight of both her body and the pain that still sparks and claps through her. 

( _She keeps her eyes on the ground to not meet anyone’s gaze, unsure whether she would be able to lie to their face in her condition._ )

She’s pretty sure that the pain has already decreased compared to the first impression that has yet to fade from her mind, but still the steps she takes to follow everyone out of the mansion are excruciating, and she finds herself taking them without breathing to lessen the movement as she struggles not to fall behind too much.

She wonders if the sore muscles excuse would work in case anyone asks.

Somehow, walking makes her feel better rather than worse, and by the time Nami and Zoro stop to lean on a simple wooden fence while the rubber man runs after Usopp, it just feels like a giant bruise that someone is poking at everytime she moves, which is much more manageable.

Hoping that her observation might be consistent, she forces herself to keep pacing, especially since it makes it harder for anyone to see the sheen of sweat on her face or the residual trembling of her hands. She crosses her arms to hide them more just in case, stirring her mind away from the throbbing inside her. 

( _She might as well put to use her experience in disregarding her own feelings._ )

When her breathing becomes ragged again because, well - _it fucking stings_ , she goes to lean on the fence besides Zoro. He isn’t necessarily less observant than Nami, especially since he was there when she freaked out over Buggy’s cannon ball, but at least he’s more likely to keep it to himself if he does notice that something is going on.

“What is it?” He asks all of a sudden, voice low and curious, staring straight ahead instead of at her face.

She does the same, praying that his timely question is just a coincidence rather than him reading her mind, because that would just be impossible to deal with. She treads carefully, keeping her voice equally low.

“You’ll have to give me a bit of context, Zoro-san.”

“What were you thinking about? It looks like it’s a problem, and if that’s the case it’d be better for us to know.”

Her frown deepens, and she chews harder on her lips as Nami joins them while two of the kids keep talking to each other.

“It might not end up having anything to do with us, and I might be reading too much into this, but…” She clicks her tongue, contemplating whether it’s a good idea for her to tell them her suspicions when it might make them all close-minded in the case she’s wrong, before she decides to keep going, because neither of them looks like they’ll let her stop anyway. “Something about the butler doesn’t seem right.”

“What do you mean?” Nami prompts, frowning as she tries to spot what could catch Elynna’s attention -beyond the fact that he behaved like a douchebag with Usopp.

“Who’s the master and who’s the servant?”

“Hey, it’s not because she’s his employer that she has to treat him badly! What, did you want that girl to punish him for insulting her friend or something?!” The redhead hisses, mind folding hastily around the memories of her own employer to keep them from spilling out like water - _or blood_ \- from a vase too full. 

( _Memories of his blade-like teeth and how each time he says 'my navigator' feels like a white-hot knife twisting in her heart -_ shredding further the memories of **_her_ ** that she keeps there _, of how each possessive, branding touch of his hand on her face or her arms is like acid, ghosts still eating away at her ability to love herself after all this time._ )

“Not what I mean. But usually, when one of the two parties ignores the other’s words or disrespects them, it’s the master. Just saying.”

“Disrespect? He kept saying that he was protecting her by sending Usopp away.” Zoro raises a brow.

“That’s just it. On the surface, he looks and sounds like a caring servant. But when she asked him, ordered him to shut his mouth? He kept talking all over her like her opinion didn’t even matter. And not just once. I’m not very familiar with that kind of life, but I’m pretty sure that a servant is supposed to obey orders, whether they agree with them or not -unless they’re being asked to break important social or moral rules. In a good relationship, they might be able to give their opinion on what their master is doing, but certainly not like this, and they’re still supposed to go along with it if the order isn’t changed. We weren’t guests, but he patronised her and disrespected her in front of strangers all the same, and made her look like a fragile child who can’t think for herself. As I see it, he might not care for her as much as he appears to. But like I said, it doesn’t really have anything to do with us at the moment, even if it turns out to be true.”

The other two are silent as she finishes her rant.

“Okay, I see your point.” Nami eventually says, face softening. “And I’m sorry for getting angry at you before letting you explain.”

“No problem. My words weren’t exactly self-explanatory either.”

The swordsman opens his mouth, but whatever he’s about to say is interrupted by the screams of the third kid that comes running towards their little group.

“There’s a weird guy who’s walking backwards!”

All three of them exchange a vaguely confused glance ( _scratch that, they're_ completely _confused_ ).

“D’ you reckon that the Usopp disease is contagious?” Elynna blurts out.

Zoro throws a deadpan glare at her as an incredulous chuckle falls out of Nami’s mouth.

A guy does come to them walking backwards, though, which is very clearly weird in itself, even with the standards of weirdness of this world.

“Who said I’m weird? I’m not weird at all.”

“Yes, you are! No matter how I look at it, you’re definitely a weirdo.” Nami denies, bluntly telling what is on everyone’s mind.

“Shut up! I’m just a hypnotist passing by.”

The Straw Hats’ First Mate raises a brow at that. If she had any doubts, the fact that the kids look so surprised is proof that he’s not from here.

_So what is a hypnotist doing in a small village like this?_

And from what she sees, he’s the real deal too -although somewhat idiotic. 

Somehow, she fails to see how him being there just when the main characters of the show drop by will _not_ result in some dramatic showdown.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm mean with Zoro, I know. (It's very enjoyable.)
> 
> Anyway, I hope you stay safe and happy, and see you next week for a more action-packed chapter!


	7. SIX

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Elynna is about as useless as her teammates with directions (but less useless with her brain).
> 
> And she finally admits to herself that having a body of the One Piece world is kinda (very very) cool.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have bad news. We've reached the end of my reserve of chapters. Well the next one is just missing a few scenes, but I'm currently busy lamenting on how I have between six and eight successive hours of zoom uni on most days of the week. So yeah. If anyone wants to complain about that with me, I'm all for it. Bring it on (and your tissues too).
> 
> But. 
> 
> Good news. Elynna kicks ass in this chapter. Somewhat literally. 
> 
> (You're welcome.)
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, so anything that you see in this fic and that you can recognise as belonging to One Piece is not mine. If I did own it, I wouldn't have to write fanfiction. Duh.

**From The Sea - Dive|rgence**

  
  


**SIX**

  
  


_Lying to you is so_

_Hard_

_When you give me your trust_

_and your truth_

_But I wish on no one the destruction_

_of questioning reality_

_and free will_

(You’re worth lying to.)

  
  


**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

  
  


Around an hour later, Usopp comes running, without Luffy, from the same direction the hypnotist took earlier, and doesn’t even stop when passing them. 

Elynna sighs, already pretty sure that this break is over.

“Is he still mad that the butler looked down on him?” Nami ponders curiously, but her eyes are narrowed, and she’s already getting down from her seat on the fence next to Zoro.

The three of them exchange a glance again and, coming to a wordless agreement, ask the three kids to take them to the shore where he apparently comes from.

When they reach it, the sight of the Straw Hats’ Captain, who apparently fell from the cliff and landed with his butt in the air, kind of ruins the anxious mood that was looming over the group. Elynna has to make a great effort to hold back her snickers, earning a light punch to her arm from Nami, while Zoro goes to wake him up. Probably not as respectfully as he should.

Luffy yawns, one hand straightening his hat while the other is stretching above his head.

His First Mate wonders blankly if he even knows that he would already be dead if he didn’t eat the Gomu Gomu no Mi, but eventually shrugs the question off. It’s not worth worrying about when he won’t ever die in a fall anyway.

( _She already has enough things to worry about as it is._ )

And then he looks around, spotting the three kids, and opens his mouth.

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

“Wha… The butler?”

“They’re going to kill Kaya-sama?!”

“The village is gonna be attacked?! Is that true?!!”

Elynna rolls her eyes.

_‘Course not, he just said it to freak you out._

“Yep, no doubt about it. That’s what they said.” Luffy nods, something like determination nestled between his furrowed eyebrows and layered around his eyes, and at that moment Elynna knows that this definitely has something to do with them now.

_Called it._

Zoro throws a glance at her, taking note of the fact that even if she didn’t uncover the whole plot -which would be more suspicious than anything else, she did sense that something was amiss. He looks at her face, and scowls at the way it is painted in quiet shades of resignation.

She doesn’t seem happy at all to know that she’s right.

In fact, she seems downright defeated.

( _He hates the way the lines of her face seem so used to assuming that expression, and feels a vague desire to punch it right off her face._

_Defeat is something that has always clashed against the convictions of his mind and the stainless steel of his will._ )

“Well, then it’s all good! Your Captain was running to the village to warn everyone, so by the time they get here it’ll be too late!”

The three kids are quick to run off at Nami’s comment, screaming about all the things they have to pack.

The dark-haired girl barely hears them, mind running through her thoughts again, teeth unconsciouly tearing at her upper and lower lips in turn.

Something- Something is _off_.

_If they made her Captain fall down the cliff when he heard about their plan, then why weren’t they running after-_

**“I heard that you liked to come up with convoluted stories.”**

**“I thought you would come up with another one of your little lies.”**

She tugs at a patch of skin until it is torn away from her lip with a burning sting, and then clamps her teeth down when the taste of blood floods her mouth.

She remembers a book. Not the exact words. Not if she read it with her parents or at school.

But she remembers the little running rabbit whose voice rang through his village-

( _-until there were no written words anymore, and the pages became horrifyingly, tragically_ **_red_** _._ )

“Aaaaaah! We haven’t bought meat yet, and the butcher is gonna run away too!”

“You idiot! _That’s_ what you’re thinking about?! We should be running away too, before we get caught up in th-”

“It won’t work.”

Nami stops talking as Elynna’s voice rings through the air despite its quietness -a whisper really, and both she and Luffy turn to her, confused. Zoro is still watching her, having noticed the fixed, blind stare that he is coming to associate with their First Mate thinking hard about something -or overthinking it.

“Elynna. What won’t work?”

She blinks, and frowns slightly up at him, not seeming to realise that they heard her until she notices the way they’re all staring at her.

“They won’t listen to Usopp.”

Nami’s stomach twists at that, the screams of another village and the cruel laughter of another group of pirates echoing in her ears.

( _Except they’re coming from_ inside, _from that little box that she never, ever opens in front of anyone._ )

“Why wouldn’t they?” She pushes once she’s sure that her voice sounds relatively normal.

“He already has the reputation of spouting extravagant lies like he breathes. Everyone in this village has been listening to them for years now. What do you think will happen if he comes running to tell them that the butler, the guy who looks all nice and has been looking after and taking care of the sickly young miss, is a pirate who intends to raid their little village in the middle of the weakest sea of the world?”

“But it’s the truth!” Luffy jumps to his feet with a shout.

“I know. But sometimes, lying to others or yourself is easier.” She’s not looking at him, not really, and there’s something salty clinging to the corner of her eyes, like bitterness and tears.

She looks tired, a heavy kind of tiredness that settles in every line and crevice of her body, like the weight of long years that she hasn’t lived yet.

( _Lying to them is easier than facing their disbelief and their backs as they turn on her -as they leave her to survive alone._

_But it isn’t_ easy.

_Lying to herself would be easier than constantly telling herself_ look, these nails into this skin is painful -this is your body, _and_ remember the cold steel of that gun on your skin and the water gliding along your body and the sound of their laughter -this world is as true as any other.

_But it wouldn’t last long._ )

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

Once again, she’s right.

( _It doesn't make her feel any better._ )

As the members of the Usopp pirate crew walk away from their Captain, figuratively and literally, she reaches for the arm that is clumsily hidden behind his back. Without listening to his protests, she makes him sit down and crouches in front of him while taking out what she needs from her backpack.

“It’s true, right? That those pirates will attack tomorrow.”

“It’s the truth.” Usopp nods at Zoro’s question, wincing at the sting of the disinfectant. “But since I’ve been lying all this time, no one believes me.”

Elynna finds that it’s a bit like the way he threatened them with his slingshot upon their arrival. The more one uses threats and lies, the less impact they have. Pretend can only take one so far, and at some point they have to back it up with actions. 

She thinks that there’s a lesson for her to remember there.

( _She also thinks about how everything she says about herself is at least a partial truth. She_ did _get lost while swimming. She_ did _have a goldfish who did not live long enough to break records. Bandaging Nami’s hand_ was _the first time that she was playing nurse._

_But lying by omission has always been more her type. Keeping everything locked within herself is something she is good at, after all._

_Every time she reacts to the name Elynna is a lie._

_Every time someone assumes that she is from this world and she doesn’t bother to correct them is_ a lie.

_Every time someone does something to include her existence as part of the Straw Hat Pirates, and she doesn’t bother to correct them_ , is a lie.

She.

_Is._

_A._

_Lie._ )

“Everyone thinks that it will be just another normal day… And I’m going to make sure it is! I’ll protect the village from the pirates, and it will become just another one of my lies!” He looks down at the forearm that she is bandaging, and she sees a tear create a wet spot on the cloth ( _she hides it with another layer of gauze and doesn’t say anything_ ). “They might have fired their guns at me, but this is the village that I grew up in, and I love everyone here! I want- I want to protect them! How can I just watch everyone get _killed_?!”

His hand is trembling in hers, and she thinks that Usopp might be more relatable than the two monsters standing behind her, but that calling him a coward is an exaggeration.

( _She thinks that, if it was her, she would certainly not go face a group of experimented pirates alone head on._

_She wonders if she would run away, and finds that she cannot answer with full certainty either way._ )

“Yosh! We’ll help you on this one!”

“Fine! But let’s be clear, all their treasure is mine!”

She’s not surprised by the three others’ decision. Usopp wouldn’t just enter the crew like this, and she did say that they would need to call in a big favour to get a ship.

A major part of her is intent on following them. She decided to stick with this crew, after all, which means following the Captain’s decision, and in that moment she can empathise with Usopp’s pain. 

( _she forces herself to think everyday about the moment where her own lies will be uncovered and she will lose their trust, even if they allow her to stay with them, forces herself to prepare for the way her heart will ache and her breath will burn, for the way their face will twist and their words will_ hurt-) 

Besides, while she admires the careful way this plan was constructed, the brilliance of the butler’s -whatever his name is- mass manipulation, she sees no point in the bloodshed that is part of it, and has no desire to let it happen when Luffy, Zoro and Nami’s strength on top of Usopp’s can stop it.

Still, another part of her whispers frightfully that this has nothing to do with her, that this goes beyond simple kindness and straight into self-sacrifice territory, that she doesn’t want to put her life on the line for people she doesn’t know -even though this absence of emotional connection on her part does not lessen the objective value of their life in any way.

( _And then there is this tiny, tiny part of her that is hissing -deceptively soft like untraceable poison- that_ **_well, if these people refuse to believe the boy’s warnings, why shouldn’t they be left to reap what they sowed?_** )

“You guys… will help me? Why?”

“You have the words ‘I’m scared’ written all over your face.” Zoro explains bluntly.

“Me? Scared?! So what if they outnumber me?!! They can’t win against a brave warrior like Captain Usopp!!!”

His voice is loud, like rushing out the words will ensure that his voice doesn’t have the time to tremble, like he’s trying to cover the sound of his heart running like mad in chest -running like it can get away and let the rest of his body deal with this mess.

Everyone looks down at his shaking legs.

“What are you looking at?! They’re Captain Kuro’s fleet! Of course I’m scared! Go away, I don’t need your sympathy!”

… _Why does everyone in books and movies seem to have something against sympathy?_

In her opinion, a complete inability to sympathise with others’ emotions is much more problematic.

“Why are you ashamed? If you still plan to go out there when you’re scared, it makes you even braver. Besides, if you don’t have much experience in fighting and the reflexes that go with it, being scared might just help keeping you alive.”

Zoro nods in assent at her words.

“We’re helping you because we think you’re a good guy, that’s all. Don’t make this about sympathy.”

“Yeah! Why would we risk our lives for that?”

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

“They’re going to attack from this shore, and with all the cliffs around, they will have to go up this slope. So if we can defend it, we win.”

“I don’t know if this was intended or not, but this place is a pretty strategic spot.” Elynna comments, drawing a proud nod from Usopp at her assessment.

“Should be easy!” Luffy claims, looking more excited than concerned about the whole thing.

“That’s what you say now! What are you good at, by the way?”

“Cutting.”

“Stretching.”

“Stealing.”

“Nothing.”

“Hiding.”

As Nami and Zoro yell at Usopp, Luffy bonks her on the head and she staggers, black spots dancing in her vision with the force of the blow, which feels a lot like something _very_ heavy bashing her upside the head.

She catches herself on his shoulder, allowing herself to wince while her hair is still hiding most of her face before she straightens up, promptly deciding to bump up ‘learn to dodge’ in her list of priorities by at least a few ranks, because if she gets this particular shōnen treatment too often, she will lose the only thing that makes her useful -a.k.a. her brain cells- _and_ wind up with a case of PTSD.

_Not. Cool._

“What was that for? It was a good rhyme.” She mutters half-heartedly. 

Nami sighs, shaking her head in exasperation.

“She can heal as long as it’s not too complex. And she can think.” 

She throws a pointed glance at Luffy, who remains completely oblivious.

Instead, he makes a noise in the back of his throat, half-confusion and half-annoyance.

“You don’t think when you fight, Nami!” 

“How would you know, you never tried it.” Elynna mumbles, pushing herself away from his shoulder to avoid the second fist.

Zoro grabs Luffy by the back of his shirt with a reminder that they are supposed to fight another crew, not their own, and they get to work on pouring the oil barrels they brought back from the village down the slope.

“You’re pretty good at strategic thinking, Usopp-san.”

“When it comes to slingshots and strategy, I am fully confident in myself!” He exclaims, rubbing at his nose proudly.

“Look, look! The sun is up! They should be here soon!” Luffy draws their atttention to the golden glow that looks like liquid fire on the horizon.

_Sun is up, Time is up-_

_… Damn, she needs a nap._

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

By the time the sun has fully risen in the sky, Elynna’s adrenaline levels have gone down and she’s almost sleeping on her feet.

“What are they doinnnnnnnng…” Her Captain whines, clearly less worried for the villagers than his prospects of having fun.

“Maybe they overslept.”

Elynna frowns at Zoro’s theory. Maybe she’s just projecting her own obsession with not being late on their potential enemies, but somehow she doubts it.

“Nami-san…”

“Yeah?”

“Unless you moved our boats since coming here, we didn’t arrive on this shore, did we?”

“Well, no.” Usopp is the one who answers. “You moored at the north- The north shore!”

Suddenly, all the confidence he seemed to build up during the night was gone, and his face looks almost as pale as Elynna’s.

“Are you telling me you got the wrong one?!”

“They were talking about their plan here! Of course I assumed-”

“Enough!” She screams to cover the argument, pushing the sense of urgency that is fidgeting inside her veins in that one word. 

Her voice cracks like a whip through the air, startling everyone.

“We don’t have time for this.”

Luffy barely takes the time to listen to Usopp’s directions, exploding into speed and gone from their view in a few seconds.

She’s about to follow after Usopp when something catches her arms, and then she’s falling.

She only has the time to throw her arms forward in an attempt to catch something before she finds herself sliding down something, a horribly strong stench of oil permeating her every sense, Zoro being dragged down with her under her grip.

“Wha-”

“Sorry guys, I slipped!” Nami apologises hurriedly.

Elynna looks up just in time to see her use Zoro to get out of the oil-covered zone before running off, shouting something about her treasure.

_Well, at least one of them has their head screwed on right._

She can't help but be relieved that the other girl didn't walk on her instead given the strange condition of her body.

She lets herself slide down the slope until her body stops on its own.

“My hair…” She groans in despair at the idea of getting oil out of this.

The stuff of nightmares.

She makes to sit up, but then sees the state of her top and falls back with another groan.

“My shirt…”

“We’ve got other priorities here!” Zoro admonishes her from somewhere above her. “We have to get out somehow!”

Lazily, she archs her neck until she’s looking at him upside down.

She doesn’t know if she’s amused at the somewhat ridiculous picture he makes trying to run up the slope without actually moving because of the oil, or if she’s impressed that he manages to get that far up like this in the first place.

Well she’s both, but she doesn’t know which one wins.

Zoro slides back down to her side, and throws an exasperated glare at her unmoving form.

“What are you doing?” He pants. “Get up and try.”

“I don’t have endless amounts of energy, you know.”

And if he can’t make it like this, then she can’t either.

( _She doesn’t have enough energy to invest it in something hopeless._ )

“Sorry I dragged you down with me, by the way.” 

He rolls his eyes, somehow feeling like the apology isn’t only directed at him -or at the situation at hand.

“Whatever. You just tried to find something to hang onto, it’s a natural reflex. But I’m gonna _kill_ Nami for using me as a way out.”

And so saying, he goes back to trying to outrun the slickness of the oil, leaving her to try and figure out a way to get up that damn slope.

If he can’t do it by simply running, then they’re gonna need to use something.

_Come on, think! She's never seen a slope covered in oil, but what other kind of land is hard to walk on in her world? Swamps, mountains-_

She thinks back to her trek-loving grandparents and the trekking poles they are using more and more as the years pass-

She sits up suddenly.

“Zoro-san!”

Her call almost makes him fall face first into the oil again before he regains his balance and focuses on controlling his body as he slides back down towards her.

Between the oil and the sweat, his shirt is sticking to the hard planes of his body, and it takes her a second before she realises that if she keeps looking it will be called full-on ogling.

_Focus now, fantasise later._

( ~~ _If she’s not dead._~~ )

“What is it?”

“Your katanas. You could stab them into the ground to get up the hill.”

“What?! You don’t use katanas like this!”

“Look, I know that it’s not very orthodox, but if you don’t get there soon, these blades of yours won’t get to soak in the blood of your enemies and all that nice stuff. So unless you have a better idea...”

His sigh echoes with all the annoyance he feels, towards himself for not having a better idea within the next five seconds, and towards her for suggesting this in the first place.

Then he crouches in front of her.

“Come on, get on. Otherwise you will never get out of here.”

Well, when he puts it like that… 

She’s always had a thing for broad backs and chests. How can she resist?

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

It’s barely ten seconds after they’ve left the top of the slope that the red of Luffy’s shirt -who somehow doubled back to his departure point- catches Elynna’s eye. 

She clamps her thighs around Zoro’s waist for balance, making him curse as he trips in surprise, and waves boths arms in the air, careful to not upset his rhythm too much.

“Captain!”

“Guys! Usopp told me to head straight north, so I ran in a cold-ish direction, but it didn’t work! Which way is north?” Luffy pouts at them in childish confusion as he reaches their level.

His pout morphes into a beaming smile at the chuckles startled out of his First Mate -although he’s not quite sure _why_ she’s laughing.

“How should I know? Elynna, stop laughing. Which way is north?”

She stifles the sounds coming out of her mouth, trying to focus again on the problem at hand. She knows where the sun rises, so she has a general idea of where the north is, but since there doesn’t seem to be a direct path to it from where they are, she would probably stray from her initial direction at some point.

“No idea. But I don’t need to.”

That catches both their attention.

“I remember the path we took when we arrived, and the one we took to get to the other shore. It’ll be longer, but at least we’re sure to get there.”

“Perfect! Where do we go?!”

“Turn left there- The other left, Zoro-san!”

“What? There are two left?!”

_Is he for real?_

She lets her forehead hit his shoulder for a single second of desesperation before straightening up while Luffy stretches his arm to steer Zoro in the good direction.

He doesn’t let him go until they see the Black Cat pirates in front of them, running past Nami and Usopp who are both lying on the ground and towards them.

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

As soon as the boys accelerate to charge at the group of pirates, she slides down Zoro’s back, staggering a few steps before running to Usopp.

Taking advantage of the attention being hogged by her crewmates, she places his arm around her shoulder, her own arm around his waist, carefully picking him up as he bickers with Luffy about their respective knowledge of the northern direction.

“Since our opponent is strong, we will simply have to be stronger!” The hypnotist’s voice draws her attention.

She turns, narrowing her eyes at the ring of metal he starts to swing in front of his crew’s eyes.

_Wait, this ring-_

Her eyes flicker to Luffy, who is also staring at Jango’s pendulum.

“He’s trying to make them believe that they’re stronger. That’s absurd.”

“You’d be surprised at what the human mind can do.”

Usopp glances up at her tense but blank face, startled.

“Wait! Are you saying that-” 

He’s interrupted by the howling, inhuman screams of the pirates. 

Elynna’s already tense body seems to freeze, each muscle and bone locked in position while blood and thoughts speed through her like a train veering off-track, as she sees them jumping around without any rhyme or reason, gaze white and mindless and frenzied-

( _She feels dizzy, body coated in heavy and sluggish terror, mind strangely lucid and distantly musing that_ **_really, this much fear isn’t helping at all._** )

Grimly, Zoro tells her and Nami to take Usopp with them and get back, a small line between his brows the only sign of his worry in the face of the sudden, electric change of attitude among their enemies.

“Don’t sweat it too much. You’ve got him.” She points at her Captain, who lets out a loud, aggressive shout of his own.

“... You let him get hypnotised too?!”

“Don’t yell at me like that. He was talking aloud about making his crew stronger. Why would I pass up the opportunity to take that advantage for our side?”

“Ugh, fine. Just go!”

She turns, still supporting Usopp, and carries him as fast as she can without jolting him to the side of the slope, where Nami is already waiting.

“Nice one.”

“Thanks.” She breathes as they both settle beside her. “Riding Zoro’s back with the both of us covered in oil was not so nice.”

“... But riding his back in itself was nice?” Nami snorts, smile cheeky and gaze mischievous.

“Well personally I’d rather just ride him when he’s on his back, but I’m not too picky.”

She’s not sure whether Usopp’s cheeks are red because he’s embarassed or because he’s choking on nothing.

“Oh my god, Elynna, you are _not_ supposed to make me laugh like that in this kind of situation!” 

Nami completely fails at sounding even a little bit admonishing as she tries to muffle her giggles in her hand, shoulders shaking and brown eyes sparkling loud enough to make up for her silenced laughter.

She’s only half-aware of the rampage her Captain goes on after that, too busy trying to patch up Usopp and hoping that she’s not making anything worse, because it’s a head injury, and she’s pretty sure that in her home world it would result in the victim’s brain being splattered on the ground.

“Zoro! Your katanas!”

Nami’s shout is what finally draws her eyes to the fight going on, but the three of them can only watch as the situation goes from bad to worse when the other cat weirdo joins in and turns out to have a strength that matches his partner’s speed. Usopp’s attempt to help Zoro ends up doing the opposite as the latter steps in the way of his bullet to keep the attention of his attackers on him.

“If this goes on…” Nami trails off, eyes unable to stray from the blood tainting Zoro’s white shirt red. “I have to get his katanas back. If he has them, he’ll definitely win!”

“Let me do it!”

“Stay here, Usopp! I barely have a scratch compared to you!”

And then she jumps down on the slope, running towards Zoro’s treasure, unaware that Elynna has jumped right after her, eyes not on the two katanas but on the man standing dangerously close to them, the man who isn’t on their side and who is already stepping forward, metal glinting in his hand-

She lunges, colliding with Nami’s back, arms reaching out to protect the thief’s head as she tucks her own between their bodies.

Thin and sharp, steel grazes her forearm with a cold kiss that leaves behind a thin, burning memory as the both of them roll down on the ground.

When they stop, she feels bruised everywhere all over again, but as she raises her arm to place her hand on Nami’s mouth and keep her silent, she can’t help but notice that there’s dust and a red line on her skin, but no dark stains blooming under the layer of white covering her bones and muscles.

Her eyes meet brown ones, and the navigator nods in understanding, turning just enough to look over her shoulder as they wait for the good moment while an internal conflict among the Black Cat pirates unfolds upon their former Captain’s arrival.

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

“If you can’t settle this in five minutes… I will kill all of you!”

Both girls exchange another glance.

“I’ll take care of the katana.” Nami breathes, whisper so low that Elynna almost thinks she’s imagining her voice as the other girl mouths the words. 

She nods, understanding that this leaves her in charge of making sure that the Jango guy doesn’t get in the way. She would rather not draw attention to herself by taking part in this fight, but her aim is pretty bad, so it’s probably for the best that she leaves the katanas to Nami.

So she stands up, feet as silent as she can, and steps over the other girl to come to a stop just behind the hypnotist.

Then she taps him on the shoulder.

“Hey!” She says with a cheery wave, and she can’t help but grin because _sue her, she always wanted to do something like this_.

Before he can react in any way, her foot slams against his face with all the strength she can muster, sending him crashing into the rocky wall lining the side of the slope.

_Uh. Having a body of this world_ can _be_ _pretty cool._

Behind her, Nami gapes before she reminds herself to take care of Zoro’s katanas, because she’s not even sure that she can raise her leg that high and _where does someone so usually inexpressive even hide a smile so cute, dimples and not-completely-straight teeth included?_

In the time that it takes Zoro to snatch his two katanas out of the air, he makes sure to note the First Mate’s very good balance as she quickly raises her leg in a vertical split even though she’s standing on a rather steep slope, and how she stays completely straight while doing it, in a rather impressive show of back and abdominal strength. Although it also proves that she’s not used to fighting, because an inexperienced fighter would twist their body to add to the strength of their hit.

As she walks towards the unconscious man, Elynna wonders if she should worry. Her hands are trembling a bit with adrenaline, and everything feels too sharp and colourful, somehow simultaneously slow and fast.

But hitting this man doesn’t make her _feel_ anything.

She’s aware that she just hurt another living being, but the only thing she can think is that they both came here knowing what the stakes of the game were ( _knowing that losing means death, that the rules of society embedded within every one of her cells don’t apply_ ), and that she’s a human being anyway, not a fucking angel.

( _The ideal of angels is overdone, anyway. You don’t fight demons with empty hands and kind words alone._ )

She shrugs the distant thoughts away, and kneels down by the hypnotist to retrieve the thin circles of steel hidden in his coat.

As she thought, she did see them somewhere.

Chakrams.

She stands back up, and winds her arm back. Whether she can aim or not, she can still throw things far away. Her grandparents own a dog, after all.

The weapons glint like another victory for them as they sail through the air.

Their owner groans as he comes to, propping himself onto one knee.

She remedies to that by kneeling him in the face. 

If her opponent is not going to follow any rule in this fight, she’s not going to force herself to remain honourable like her crewmates would.

( _She may have been a normal citizen up till coming to this world, but her morals have been wobbly for years._ )

She turns as Luffy’s voice echoes through the air, yelling at Nami for waking him up by stepping on him. Two bodies roll on the floor, stopping not far below her, and she recognises the two cat weirdos from earlier. 

_Honestly, she likes cats, but these guys are just plain creepy_. 

The bigger one lifts himself on his elbows.

“I’m… Gonna kill that guy! Cap- Captain Jango! Hypnotise me!”

_… She feels kinda offended that he thinks she’s his Captain._

He looks up.

She raises a nonchalant hand.

“Yo.”

That’s clearly not what he wants to hear, or who he wants to see, because he staggers to his feet, and his gaze on her is like a physical thing that slams into her and closes around her in a vice-like grip.

She stops breathing, and thinks _if I don’t do something, I’m going to die here_.

Voices boom in her ears, the name they’re screaming echoing inside her like a dissonance.

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

_“How much time do we have left?”_

_“The next group will come in half an hour, but since I want to work a bit on the rest, let’s say we focus on this move for, like, twenty minutes?”_

_She shrugged._

_“Works for me.”_

_She walked back to the position from where she would start the sequence, and turned around to face her partner. Closing her eyes, she reviewed in her mind every movement she had to make, although her muscle memory had already soaked in most of them._

_There was just that one move, and she had to have good timing, good momentum, good synchronisation with him-_

_She breathed in._

_It wasn’t like her brain could calculate all of this anyway, and they still had time -and a plan B in case it wasn’t possible._

_She breathed out, shoulders and neck rolling._

_Her eyes met his._

_“Ready?” He called out, voice gliding teasingly on the last sounds of her name._

_That bastard always liked to laugh at her anxious overthinking._

_She nodded._

_The music started, and her mind cleared, entering the single-minded focus that sometimes brought her problems but also filtering out all other thoughts that normally whirled around in her brain everyday, like its very own torturous trap._

_Her body slipped into the beginning of the sequence like it would an old, comfortable sweatshirt._

_His body mirrored her as they got closer and closer, movements more and more erratic, purposefully lashing out to strengthen the impression of conflict._

_He put one foot on the sofa as she rushed towards the back of it._

_Her heart slammed._

The timing was good.

_He pushed until the sofa rested on its back legs and the top of it was low enough for her to jump on it._

_She did, body toppling forward in a controlled fall as she gripped his shoulders._

_The tightening of her fingers on them was the only thing betraying her excitement as she kept her focus on getting further -and getting this damn move right._

_Her legs traced an arc through the air, and as she began to fall behind him again, he used the sofa to push himself in the air too._

_His scream conveyed his feelings as much as hers._

_“Hell yes!”_

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

Air storms into her lungs.

He’s rushing at her, claws ready to tear red gouges into her.

Adrenaline drums quick beneath her skin, and she wraps her mind around this rhythm.

He won’t be helping her like _he_ did, and the movement isn’t exactly the same and the speed and the strength aren’t the same and he’s so much more heavier-

But if this body holds true, and if all the swimming she did was enough to get used to this body and prevents her from overcompensating-

She lunges forward.

Zoro, who is running toward her, curses because _why is she rushing towards him when she doesn’t know how to fight_ and _she’s supposed to be the smart one so why is she doing this, even if he’s weakened, this_ **_idiot_** **-**

The cat weirdo brings his arm back, ready to slash at her.

She jumps.

His claws sing through the air.

Her bare feet alight on his forearm.

The fur of his cape bunches inside her fisted grip.

Her legs come to align themselves with her bust and his body, perfectly straight as she stands upside down on his shoulders.

And the next moment they’re falling, her feet smashing in the face of the guy’s partner, who woke up and followed after him.

She slams him skull-first into the ground, and with a great heave, flips her bigger attacker over her.

“Captain!”

“I got him!”

Big cat weirdo sails through the air and straight into Luffy’s stretching fist.

She pants, arms trembling under the strain.

_Well, it certainly won’t be her who will carry the Captain’s meat to_ -

Heat spears though her calf, followed by something wet.

_Shit, she’s really a fucking imbec-_

The second cat weirdo, although half-unconscious between her and Zoro’s blows, closes his clawed hand around her calf ( _a sound echoes from her throat, remnant of the gasp of pain that she strangles on the spot_ ), and flings her over his head.

She curls herself into a ball and tucks her head under her arm, closing her eyes as much by reflex as to stop the tears that are rushing to them.

She hits something too supple to be ground, and arms curl around her shoulders and across her thighs.

Her nose smacks against someone’s pectoral muscle.

She breathes in sea spray, sweat, and sunshine.

( _It’s warm, and like every time someone touches her when she’s struggling to clamp down on the tears, she feels her eyes burn even more._

_Still, for that moment, she forgets that she’s on a battlefield, and just wishes that hugging him back doesn’t feel like making him happy to better hurt him if she ever leaves -because she’s not dense enough to think that he doesn’t want to get closer to her if he asked her to join him._

_She wishes that she doesn’t like hugs this much, and that he doesn’t sharpen that need into pain, even though she’s been able to dismiss this shortage from her mind all her life and she can still do it, damnit, it’s not like she_ needs _hugs to live-_ )

She feels the person land, and opens her eyes to the sight of red cloth and slightly tanned skin.

( _But she already knew._ )

When he lets her body down, he does so uncharacteristically carefully, holding her close to him as she makes sure to keep her right leg in the same position and not to bump it against anything.

As it is, the pain is like waves, spiking up her leg and receding as its intensity declines.

She uses her good foot to hop away from her Captain, and as it touches the ground again her injured leg knocks into the other.

The answering wave of pain crashes through her like against a cliff, tearing through her stomach that seems to flip around a few times and up to her lungs, making her breathing shallow and the world nauseatingly unstable.

The hand that she left on Luffy’s shoulder tightens minutely, but she doesn’t allow herself to dig her fingers into his skin. She scrunches her eyes shut, free hand lifting to pinch at the bridge of her nose.

“Fuck. Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow. Okay.” She whispers to herself. “ _Okay_.”

**_You got careless and you got hurt. That’s the rule._ **

**_You’re still alive, so stop whining and don’t make that mistake next time._ **

She opens her eyes again. In front of her, the rubber man is staring at something over her shoulder. 

(- _eyes shadowed in violence and_

_jaws clenched around the unfulfilled need to hurt ten times, a hundred times more than his crewmate was hurt, to make that guy feel the pain, feel_ sorry _but_ -)

She throws a glance over her shoulder, and finds that the hypnotist already recovered ( _she’s not surprised really, he’s an experienced pirate and a Captain, after all, but at least being deprived of his weapons will make things more difficult for him_ ) and went after Kaya and the three kids that she vaguely remembers hearing. Apparently Zoro also has taken care of the second cat weirdo.

“Don’t look at him.” Her Captain’s voice is as calm and toneless as hers usually is.

Somehow, she finds herself more understanding of how often her mother tells her to ‘show a little enthusiasm, for once’.

( _Even then, she can’t quite find the will to do that._

_As usual._ )

On someone like him, though, it’s jarring. The ‘ _are you okay?_ ’ is on the tip of her tongue, even though it’s a dumb question considering his current expression ( _and people always answer that they’re fine anyway_ ).

She doesn’t voice it, because members of the other crew suddenly start laughing at Usopp’s vow to protect the villagers -made in an admittedly rather ridiculous position, causing the rubber man to redirect his ire at them instead.

( _She wonders where they all find the strength to make that kind of declaration._

_The tearful display of emotions makes her recoil internally in embarassment, stomach tying itself into painful, sickening knots_ -like a noose around her throat and a muzzle around her mouth- _at the idea of burdening people with her thoughts and feelings like that, at the idea of laying herself bare -of making such an easy prey of herself._

_The sharpshooter’s words sound too much like a promise bound to be broken, like false hope_ -something that will only hurt everyone involved. 

_She doesn’t have enough hope in her to find this anything other than stupid._ )

“Where is Nami-san?”

Her Captain looks back at her, his face not set in stone anymore and clearly itching to go pound the butler into next week.

“Stealing their treasure.”

_Why is she asking again?_

The injured leg that she’s keeping off the ground is so heavy it’s turning numb, and unconsciously she lowers it, toes knocking against the ground.

Her mouth tightens to hold back a wince as a fresh wave of pain shoots up her leg.

“Right. Well, if you don’t need me here, I’ll just go take care of…” She gestures vaguely towards the drops of blood on the ground. “That. Unless you have an order for me?”

“Nah.”

She turns, trying to find a spot where she will not be too much of a liability but that is not too far. 

She doesn’t think she can hop very far, between the slope of the land and the pain in her leg.

“Ann?”

“Yeah?”

Her voice fades into an undignified yelp as he suddenly grabs her around the waist, pulls her against him, and rockets the both of them to a tree not far from the spot she watched the beginning of the battle from with Usopp and Nami.

Her mind whirls, trapped between thoughts like _where did her stomach go_ and _oh my god, she’s not getting paid nearly enough for this or maybe capitalism has corrupted her too much but what is this job_ -

Luffy beams at her, and reaches up to ruffle her hair the way she did for him before he fought Buggy.

“You did good!”

Her brain probably short-circuits, because when she blinks he’s not there anymore and Zoro is disappearing in the forest with Usopp thrown over his shoulder.

_Damn. She didn’t know she had this big of a praise kink_.

She snorts at the thought, and then winces as her injury decides that it’s been ignored long enough and reminds her of its existence through the uncomfortable feeling of blood dripping down her calf and a nice round of spiking pain.

She forces herself to lay eyes on it.

The guy’s claws closed around the back of her calf and cut it open when he tightened his hold to throw her, slicing through nerves and muscles in the process.

Her eyes zero in on a spot of white that she wishes she can unsee, or never have to see in the first place.

( _She will have to flex her foot to treat the wound as best as she can, and it’s gonna hurt, and she will have to ensure that it can’t be infected and it’s going to-_ )

She gags.

And slams her head against the tree trunk behind her.

**_Focus now. Freak out later._ **

( ~~ _Maybe_~~.)

**_No one will come to take care of your pathetic self._ **

**_Now open your bag and get. To. Work._ **

She does, half-listening to the battle going on between Luffy and the butler to try and distract herself enough to dull the pain.

“The real purpose of this plan is to get rid of the name ‘Captain Kuro’ forever!”

She can’t help but blink and stop at this one because _what the fuck, she thought that guy was smart_.

He’s smart and patient enough to come up with a three-year plan that took into account enough factors to almost succeed if not for her Captain’s decision to butt in. He’s skilled enough in manipulation that he wins everyone’s trust in a few years over someone who’s been living here all his life, without falling in his own trap and gaining affection for the villagers and the girl he took care of.

But somehow it doesn’t cross his mind that if he becomes a pirate to gain money through illegal and probably violent means, he’ll be labelled a criminal or a threat to public order or _whatever_ , and be hunted down by a large number of people?!

_Seriously?_

As soon as she hears the screams and looks down to see marks of claws in the walls of the slope, though, she slides down until she’s lying on the ground. If the guy is going so fast that he can’t even tell whether he’s slashing at people or rocks, then playing dead and praying is the best thing she can do.

By the time her Captain headbutts the butler into unconsciousness, her opinion of his intelligence has the time to be brought down again by the guy’s ‘my plan says you’ll die so you’ll die even if I can’t think of a way to not get my ass kicked right now’ attitude.

( _She likes to organise and plan every little thing in her daily life, to try and get the reassuring feeling of having at least a vague idea of what to do and where to go. She would know a thing or two about events that are unplanned for and factors that she can't control._ )

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

As Nami’s voice reaches her ears, she carefully crawls her way to the edge of the cliff that towers over the slope where the thief and Luffy are lounging, and sits there, legs dangling in the air to avoid jolting the rudimentary dressing she did on herself.

“I don’t like these guys. They’re wrong. That’s not how you’re supposed to treat nakama.”

“What are you talking about? They’re a typical example of what pirates are.” Nami spins his hat on her finger as she counters dispassionately ( _too distant, Elynna thinks, but by now she has gathered that the other girl’s hatred of just about anything pirate can only come from something big, something that hurt and still does_ **_-it's in the raw screams that she doesn't let out but that make her voice hoarse and the weight tainting the skin under her eyes the colour of nightmares_** ). “Right, Elynna?”

She blinks, not expecting to find herself thrown into the conversation, and scrunches her nose in thought.

“Well… Pirates are usually defined as criminals, yes, and it’s generally for a reason -they don’t care about the rules everyone else mostly follows and it includes not resorting to violence against what we call innocent people. The Captain’s vision is much more romanticised than that. But,” she goes on before he can say anything back, “I don’t see why he and those who think like him should fit that mould, or be put in the same box as those who do. Pirates don’t follow the rules, after all.”

“I want meat.”

That effectively ruins Nami’s seemingly contemplative mood and she slams the hat on his face before rubbing furiously.

“Why you-!”

Elynna is in the process of wondering if that hat is really only made of straw ( _or like does the straw of this world have upgraded abilities too?_ ) when Zoro, Usopp, his girlf- uh, friend, and his pirate crew join them. Apparently, the hypnotist got lost in the woods trying to find the girl and ended up face-to-face with the two others instead. Without his weapon of choice, the slingshot user took care of him easily enough even with his injuries.

“Um, Elynna-san?” The heiress eventually calls out to her timidly.

“Yes, Kaya-sama?”

“Oh, there’s no need for such honorifics! Rather, I’ve been told that you are the one with the most experience in taking care of wounds, and… I was wondering if you would be willing to take a look at my servant Merry, Usopp-san and his… crewmates? Since Usopp-san decided to not tell everyone, we cannot really go to the town’s doctor with these injuries...”

Out of politeness, she stops herself from snorting because _the most experience_ isn’t saying much.

_Does she even have enough to take care of everyone here?_

_And how is she even supposed to do this when she can’t even stand, let alone walk?_

_Will her wound even be considered painful by them when they crashed headfirst into the ground and got back up like they just fell on a big, fluffy bed?_

“Damnit people, I want a raise on my salary if I’m going to do this.”

Immediately Usopp’s… friend flushes and bows deeply, promising her that the equipment she needs will be provided to her, and that she will be compensated appropriately.

“I will help too, since Elynna is injured!” Nami adds brightly, voice unnaturally cheery and nice and, you know… selfless.

Behind Luffy’s back, she gives Elynna a thumbs up.

_Great plan!_ She mouths. 

Between Nami’s sense of humour and her sense of priorities clearly leaning towards money, the First Mate finds herself debating whether the redhead noticed that she was originally being sarcastic.

In any event, if they offer to pay her so nicely, she’s not going to refuse.

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

They stay at Syrup Village for two days before Luffy decides that it’s time to leave. After all, they got what they came here for. Namely, a ship.

Elynna hops out of the bathroom, satisfied that the dark, blue-green mass she now calls her hair is finally free of any hint of oil, but also morbidly fascinated by the fact that her injury is already half-healed because _what the fuck,_ in her home world this would take months to heal -if it ever did ( _it makes her insides sickeningly cold like the realisation and the dread threw a bucket of icy water down inside her from her head_ ) though she would never find herself in this kind of mess in the first place. Or in this kind of body -shedoesn'twanttofightdoesn'twantthisbodyitcan'tbehers-

( _She ended up punching the wall to prove -to remind- to herself that this body is as much hers as the other one, at least enough that can feel the pain she inflicts on it, she can feel the effects of her fear on it, that it can laugh when she’s amused-_

_It wasn't the best idea she ever had, but probably better than pressing down on her wound or something._ )

When she joins Nami on the deck, she gets to witness Usopp’s very… Usopp-ish arrival as he and his bag -or more like his bag and him considering the relative sizes- hurtle down the slope they fought on just two days before like a big, green snowball.

Luffy and Zoro are most helpful on this one and stop him, although it’s more out of concern for their brand new boat than for the other guy, which shows in the way they end up stepping on his face in doing so ( _intentional or not, who can say_ ).

She leans on the rail not too far from Nami, and both boys soon join them as they wait for the new pirate to say his goodbyes -which do not include any tearful confession to the blonde girl who came to see them off.

( _The tangerine-haired navigator is disappointed._

_The somewhat official nurse is relieved. She doesn’t think she can handle this amount of cringe-worthy material live._ )

“Hope to meet you again on the sea somewhere, guys!”

“Uh? Why?”

“I can’t tell if you’re being cold or slow. I’m a pirate too now, so we might see each other again!”

“What are you talking about? Get on board already!”

“What?”

“We’re nakama already, aren’t we?”

“Boys…” Nami huffs fondly with an exaggerated roll of her eyes, and Elynna snorts.

“I’m the Captain!”

“No way, _I_ am!”

Elynna lets her forehead hit the railing with a thump, and groans as both boys begin to bicker loudly.

She can feel a headache coming -and it’s not just because she hit her head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so the kicking ass part is mostly due to luck and the surprise effect on her part, because she's not suddenly going to become over-powered, but still. Progress. And I'm just getting started with her *insert manic bout of laughter here*.
> 
> Thank you for reading, and I hope you stay safe and happy!


	8. SEVEN

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which this author, in her great generosity, grants you some fluff, some angst, and some jokes (?) in what is basically a filler chapter.
> 
> Also, Elynna sucks at coming up with nicknames.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who managed to finish the chapter?! (*insert victorious, slightly manic laugh here*) You guessed right, it's the great me! Brownie points for everyone!
> 
> And thanks for the comments. Always appreciated. Seriously.
> 
> Anyway, I hope that you'll like it! It's clearly a filler, but you won't say no to a bit of crew fluff, right?
> 
> Disclaimer:I do not own One Piece, so anything that you see in this fic and that you can recognise as belonging to One Piece is not mine. If I did own it, I wouldn't have to write fanfiction. Duh.

**From the Sea - Dive|rgence**

**SEVEN**

  
  


_What is fear?_

_Is it when I scream your name, but my voice can’t come out and you can’t hear me?_

_Is it when you need me, but I am not enough?_

_(nottherepowerlessuseless)_

_Is it when I back off and my shoulders don’t meet yours?_

_Is it the day looming in my dreams where your mouth will not smile when your eyes meet mine?_

_I think that Fear is a lot_

_like Love_

_(and loving you is terrifying)_

  
  


**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

  
  


“To a new nakama and a new ship… Kanpai!”

Five mugs of beer clunk against each other, the amber liquid inside it sloshing slightly over the cusps. For the third time.

Elynna, sitting on a barrel to make sure that she won’t put any pressure on her still-healing calf, raises impressed eyebrows as she watches both Zoro and Nami chug down the content of their mugs like it’s water.

For the third time.

“And then you complain about the boys being monsters…” She shakes her head in mock-disappointment at the other girl, who grins cockily.

“Being a monster and having a few talents isn't the same thing! You know I was talking about how they fight…” Her eyes narrow shrewdly suddenly, and Elynna would bet money on what is going to come out of her mouth if she was the type to do so. “Besides, aren’t you the one who’s been pretending? Don’t think I didn’t see you pull your stunts against that hypnotist and the cat guys.”

_Called it._

“Don’t call them like that, it’s an insult to all the cats in the world.”

“I totally agree, they’re more on the creepy side of the spectrum, but don’t think you can change the subject that easily.”

“Yeah, Ann! You were so cool, I told you we’d make a good team! Where did you learn that?!”

The smaller girl squirms in her seat, staring at the beer in her mug, ocean blue hair curtaining her face as she purses her lips in hesitation, unsure of how much she can say. If she slips up again and speaks of something that doesn’t exist in this world, it could end up being hard to excuse away, even with her story of a closed-off island.

“I must admit that even me, the Great Usopp, who was born with innate genius when it comes to all fighting techniques, was impressed by your movements! I’m curious to hear which brave fellow warrior you learned from…”

She snorts in amusement at that and looks up, only to find herself stuck between her Captain’s puppy eyes and the navigator’s devious, expectant grin.

“Come on, Ann! Where did you learn to fight?” The former presses, never one to be patient.

“... I didn’t.” She eventually sighs.

“Liar.” The three others chorus.

( _The word sails like an arrow and pierces straight through the curtains of shadows in her mind that hide all the things that she does not, cannot tell them._

**_Everything you do and think is put into you by someone else._ **

**_The pain you are put through is decided by someone else._ **

**_I don’t know if any of us are real._ **

**_I think I’m starting to love you guys like I’ve managed to love only a few people. Maybe a bit too much._ **

_She wants to wince, but orders herself to get it together, because they won’t be laughing like this when the same word will come out of their mouth if they target it at these shadows._ )

“I don’t think she’s lying.” Zoro steps in as he pours himself another drink -he’s switching to sake now.

“Uh?” Luffy reacts very intelligently.

“What?” Usopp tries after him.

“Why?” Nami corrects with a roll of her eyes.

“Did you guys train to do this? ‘Cause it’s impressive.”

“Shut up, Elynna. You were saying, Zoro?” The redhead directs a slap at the plump girl's arm, who makes a show of almost falling out of her seat, expression remaining disturbingly unflappable.

Usopp literally jumps to her rescue, falls face first on the deck when she ends up not actually falling, and immediately begins a tale of how he once saved a pirate Captain from certain death, and was offered a pure gold slingshot in gratitude -some thirty years ago. 

( _She wonders if this is supposed to be a sign that he’s on his way to get drunk. She’s pretty sure he could get his dates wrong even when sober._ )

Luffy giggles, cheeks red and looking fairly tipsy already.

“I don’t think she had any training, at least in hand-to-hand fighting. I’ve never seen any fighting style where you don’t twist your body to add more power to your blow, and Elynna only moved her leg.”

Said girl blinks, humming pensively.

“Ah, that’s true.” She eventually says. “In dancing there are moves that are static, and the goal is more to shift the rest of your body only as much as you need to to keep your balance -if at all.”

“... Dancing?” Luffy crosses his arms, eyebrows twisting like he’s rummaging in his brain but can’t find anything.

It’s not that her Captain is a very trustworthy indicator, but she’s hoping really hard that dancing exists in this world right now.

“Now that you say it… I remember that I went to see a show on a neighbouring island once, and there were dancers who moved like that.” Usopp remembers suddenly, Nami nodding pensively along.

_Thank God-and-everything-that-is-holy._

She feels like kissing him right now.

But since he already may or may not have a thing with the heiress he saved just a few days ago ( _and because it would definitely freak him out_ ), she refrains.

“Yeah. I took a few dancing classes, and my cousin is an acrobat in a circus, so he taught me a few tricks.” She explains further with a shrug.

“Ohhhhh! A dancer! That’s so great, now we just have to find a musician and we’ll have great parties!” The Straw Hats’ Captain claps excitedly in his hands, and his crewmates can’t really tell if he’s wobbling because he’s already half-drunk, or if he’s trying to dance to illustrate his words.

Either way, he looks about to faceplant on the deck, so his First Mate tugs at his sleeveless shirt until he comes to lean against the barrel she’s sitting on ( _except he ends up flopping onto her, which, admittedly she was kind of expecting and hoping for, since she’s too much of a coward to reach out herself_ ).

She thinks the job title looks a lot more pretty than the reality, in which she’s basically trying to save her Captain from death via his brain’s stupid ideas, or to salvage his dignity because he seems to be one of those ‘I’m a lightweight but everything is fiiiiiine because I like drinking and I don’t care what I do when I’m shitfaced since I don’t really do smarter things when I’m not’ type of people. 

Usopp gets brownie points for having the sense to switch to fruit juice once he starts to feel a bit light-headed.

( _Unbeknownst to her, Benn Beckman stops to sneeze halfway across the world._

_He casually -force of habit and all that- punches a drunk Shanks away under the roaring laughter of the Red Hair Pirates, whose Captain apparently thought that his First Mate just sneezed more wine and wanted to take a refill, since they depleted their stock an hour ago -again._

_And then he prays for the new, unsuspecting First Mate who he’s sure just realised the plight they are now facing._

_Poor kid. Rest in peace._

_Or better yet, buy a Visual Den Den Mushi to record the plig- Captain’s bouts of dumb thinking, so that you always have a reason to vent your anger on your Captain -and good blackmail material._

_Pirates will be pirates after all._ ) 

“Still, I didn’t peg you for a dancer.” Nami goes on as she swiftly finishes Usopp’s leftover beer -without his permission.

“Because I’m fat?” Elynna’s lips twitch as the red-haired girl starts choking on the liquid at her bluntness. The sharpshooter is quick to come and helpfully hit her between her shoulder blades -maybe a bit harder than necessary. “Well, I just like eating, and I have a pretty big appetite -for a normal human being.” She throws a pointed glance at Luffy for added -and unnecessary- emphasis. “And I don’t have the physiology to be able to eat that much without putting on any weight. If I had gotten around to taking part in competitions, maybe someone would have tried to make me fit the norm more, but I didn’t and no one in my family really cares about my weight as long as it doesn’t affect my health, so…” 

Her shrug is self-explanatory.

Well, it also helps that she likes to wear ample clothes whether it’s winter or summer, and she’s not fat enough that people would get whiplash when she walks down the street.

She does get a few comments at school -being among the best of the class and somewhat of a lone wolf doesn’t really help her case, but it never goes too far considering that she knows most students of her middle and highschool from elementary, and the majority of them have learned that while she doesn’t make a lot of efforts to interact with others, she’s easy enough to get along with, even if only in a superficial way.

There are kids who are much more fun to bully than the girl who just makes a face of blank incredulity when insulted like that because she’s so unused to it.

One of her grandmothers likes to make comments too, but as far as Elynna is concerned it remains tame enough, and she only sees her twice or thrice a year, so she just sits through these conversations until her parents come back or the rant is finished, humming vaguely here and there while her mind hops from song to song.

( _When she stands in front of the mirror, though, it takes a while before she can see something else than flaws and ugliness, takes a while before_ _the tired, resigned voice in her head stops listing everything she should do to try and hidehidehide_ _-because she can’t_ change _it-_ _and she remembers instead what she knows about societal norms and the power of images and changing beauty models._

_In the end, she’s always lazy enough, uncaring enough, food-loving enough to not put herself through any self-dieting._ )

Zoro slams his newly-emptied mug on the rail of the ship again, satisfied with her explanation. He was curious about that even before she took care of the hypnotist, since he carried her on his back twice and felt a surprising amount of muscles shift under the flesh of her thighs in his grip.

… Not that he thinks about it a lot.

( ~~ _And no, he doesn’t have a thing for muscles either._~~ )

“I’m gonna take more sake!” Nami clamors as she clambers to her feet, barely staggering despite the rocking of the ship -and the amount of alcohol in her blood.

“You can have my drink if you want.”

“Uh? Don’t tell me you didn’t drink anything since the beginning, Elynna!” The heavy drinker looks completely puzzled at the idea as she directs a bewildered stare at the still-full mug.

“I don’t like the taste of alcohol, it makes me a bit sick.”

She feels even more sick when she remembers all those books and movies in which one or several characters somehow think that it’s a good idea to get supremely drunk, which usually leads to them doing something supremely embarassing, and to her dying of second-hand humiliation.

( _Something about the absolute lack of control on what she shows of herself to others makes her recoil from the pages and the screen,_

_mortification burning her cheeks like ghost of tears pressing salt into imagined wounds_

_horror punching her throat crushed and making her twisted stomach turn on itself in a wretched dance._ )

“Uh. Well. Makes more for me, I guess. I didn’t need another reason to love you, but thanks anyway!” And, smiling broadly, she snatches the mug from the nurse’s hand and knocks it back all in one go.

Elynna watches her walk to the kitchen, claiming that she still needs more sake to ‘bring the big idiot down a few pegs, since he seems to think he can beat me at drinking!’. 

The small idiot being the boy with the straw hat currently half-lying over his First Mate and babbling drowsily to a disbelieving Usopp about the beasts he wrestled with as a kid ( _obviously, Usopp tries to outdo him in extravagance and obviously, Luffy believes him -but still won’t relinquish his position of Captain_ ).

She rubs a stray tear away and blinks back its sisters, relieved that there isn’t enough light on the deck and too much alcohol in the others’ blood for anyone to witness her slip-up.

( _No one ever told her the words_ ‘I love you’.

_She knows that she has people who do love her. Dearly, even. But being_ told _that_ _she is loved isn’t the same thing -it’s an answering claim that fuels something she was the only one to pour faith in until then._

_No one in her family, and neither of her two friends, has the habit of saying these words._

_She wishes they do._

_She wishes she does too, so that, whether they still have her_ ~~_real_~~ _body or whether they were left with nothing, they would at least have these three words placed carefully in their heart by her voice._

_But they don’t._

_And she doesn’t either._

_It makes her heartbeat echo hollowly in the empty, sunken pit of her chest_

_and she wishes that Nami isn’t just teasing, knowing that at the same time she is selfishly wishing for her to_ hurt _if she ever leaves._ )

“Still up for that training you asked me for?”

The swordsman isn’t really looking at her, instead throwing suspicious glances at their new storyteller, who apparently had the time to become tipsy enough to think that it’s a great idea to try and steal Zoro’s katanas to illustrate one of his tales.

( _Evidently, it didn’t go over well for him, as shown by the lump protuding from his forehead, big enough to weigh his head down. Or maybe he’s just feeling sleepy. Or he’s trying to mimic some kind of strange animal._ )

“I sure am.”

She’s not in that much of a hurry to die that she would pass up the opportunity. Besides, being able to kick ass is cool, even if she doesn’t end up needing to. 

...

( _Who is she kidding,_ _she definitely_ will _need to._ )

“Well, it’s good that you already have some of the basic skills. Will make some things easier. Although I’ll probably have to beat some habits out of you.”

She eyes the aggressive show of teeth in his smirk distrustfully -though it _does_ look sexy. 

_Well, shit._

_He’s going to get his revenge for all her teasing, and he’s going to be sadistic about this, isn’t he?_

Not that she didn’t expect it, but she kind of maybe slightly hoped he wouldn’t be as bitchy in his grudges as she is ( _the thing about being a pessimist with a good memory is that even if she can acknowledge to herself that people have changed, their worst moments will still be more or less superposed over her every each time she looks at them_ ).

“Alright Zoro, I hope you’re ready to lose!”

His gaze gleams in challenge as it moves away from her and to the other female crewmate who is marching towards him, with what is probably half of the ship’s reserve of alcohol.

Elynna sighs, eyes bouncing between the two of them.

_Oh boy, this is going to become a regular thing, isn’t it?_

“Elynna, you’re the referee.”

She sighs again as a notepad and a pen are thrusted into her hand.

“I wanna fight too!” Their Captain informs them enthusiastically.

And without waiting for a response, or an explanation on how _sorry Captain, but I think you’ve kind of already lost that fight_ , he throws himself towards Usopp, who has absolutely nothing to do with this and is still going on about how he found a hidden city of gold miles under the sea, thanks to a system he built himself when he was six.

“Unfortunately, the map on which I put the location was stolen by that filthy traitor, but-”

He cuts himself off in a scream as Luffy sails past him and goes crashing against a wall. 

There’s a moment of silence.

The rubber boy flops back down on the deck.

And snores.

Nami closes her mouth just in time for the alcohol in it to not flow out embarassingly.

Zoro’s palm meets his forehead with loud exasperation.

“Who dared to launch a rocket at the Great Captain Usopp?! Men, make sure to catch the culprit! I shall stuff him in a canon and light the wick myself!”

The rocket snores amiably.

Elynna almost falls off her barrel for real this time, cheeks flushed with the warmth of laughter.

Nami snorts, and downs another drink with a pretty, vicious grin towards Zoro, who retaliates by slamming his own empty bottle on the ground between them.

Elynna dutifully writes down their new score.

“By the way, Usopp- _kun_ …” The navigator purrs, mouth curling inquisitively under light brown eyes that twinkle like a cat zeroing in on the defenseless canary. “I hope you kissed your girlfriend goodbye.”

( _Elynna kind of wants to kiss_ her _, half to spare Usopp what is going to be a very embarassing moment, and half because_ damn, she looks _good_ like this.)

“My… what?”

“Your girlfriend. You know, lots of money, gave us this ship, pointed a gun at the butler?”

“My what?!” Usopp repeats, voice distinctly more high-pitched and the entirety of his skin from forehead to shoulders distinctly redder and _wait, is that steam coming out of his ears?_

“I think you broke him.” The nurse points out helpfully.

“Nah, he won’t escape me that easily. Come on, Usopp-kun, give us _details_.”

“Kaya isn’t my girlfriend!”

_He should’ve made her believe he was broken_ , Elynna thinks as she throws him a glance of pity, and cowardly turns around to keep her tally of Zoro’s drinks, the swordsman not caring a bit about the conversation or his crewmate dying of self-combustion, and instead using Nami’s distracted state to take the lead.

“Ohhhh, so you’ve skipped straight to the no-honorifics stage?”

A strangled scream that sounds disturbingly like a pig being led to slaughter reaches her ears.

Luffy snores again. It doesn’t sound particularly sympathetic.

_She’s going to have to play the bleeding heart of this crew, isn’t she?_

Not that it really bothers her in this particular instance. She likes others’ feelings being pried into when they clearly don’t feel like it about as much as she likes it when it’s her feelings, which is not at all.

“Give Usopp-san a rest, Nami-san. It’s not like you won’t have the time to interrogate him later.”

This is also an attempt to see if the redhead intends to ditch them soon or keep sailing with them, and she doesn’t react. 

Elynna isn’t sure if it’s because she intends to stay, because she’s a good actress, or because she’s drunk, so all in all it’s a pretty useless attempt.

“Fine… I’ll just ask you instead.” The navigator retaliates mischievously, swiveling in her seat to face her.

The First Mate throws a long-suffering glance at the sharpshooter that says clearly _you better remember that sacrifice, Usopp-san_.

His return glance screams that _having the Great Usopp in your debt is the best protection, the best gift you could ever hope for, young lady!_

She rolls her eyes, and turns back to Nami.

“Apparently I’m dating Zoro.” She drawls casually.

The swordsmans spits out his drink.

She points her pen at him.

“Am I supposed to dock a point or what?”

Nami crows approvingly at the suggestion.

“Wait, what do you mean ‘apparently’?”

Elynna tells her about their encounter with the three pirates that she previously stole from, and at the end of it the red-haired woman is positively cackling.

“I can’t believe you used me to cheat on your boyfriend!” She dramatically wipes a fake tear from her cheek.

“I mean, it’s not really cheating if I told him we were gonna fuck to his fa-”

The rest of her sentence fades into an indignant squawk as a very annoyed Zoro smacks her face against his chest to keep her from talking any more, rubbing brutally at her hair.

When she finally emerges from his attack, her hair is a total mess, and she blows a strand out of her eyes with an air of deep-seated annoyance directed at the green-haired man, who shrugs unapologetically as Nami laughs and casually adds a point to her name on the notepad while no one is looking.

“Don’t go around distracting me when I'm in the middle of a match.”

Instead of grumbling back something bitchy, Elynna loops her arms around his neck and leans her head back against his chest. It’s almost romantic, but her face is completely blank, which makes it more ridiculous than anything else. 

“Y’ know, babe, if you really want to make up with angry sex, I’m not against it, but I already told you that I don’t like doing it in pub-”

“What the hell, woman!”

He scowls, blushing furiously, and throws her away from him like she’s poisoning his personal space.

She lands right on her Captain, and Usopp suddenly lunges at her, catching her injured leg just in time before it hits the deck.

He exchanges another glance with the dark-haired girl.

_Is that enough to repay my debt?_

_Fine, you sly little shit. I will remember that you only help people for your own benefit._

Usopp’s mouth drops in self-righteous outrage.

“I’m breaking up with you. Toxic relationship and all that.” She informs Zoro from her position without paying any attention to Usopp’s reaction.

“Good.” Zoro retorts, obviously very satisfied with himself.

“And I’m docking you another point for violence against the referee.”

“I’m never agreeing to you being the referee again.” The swordsman glares darkly at his adversary who is modifying the score accordingly.

“Ah and, Nami-san?”

“Yeah?”

“While you’re at it, take off two or three points for you too, since you tried to cheat earlier.”

Nami pouts, and Zoro smirks savagely

“Ann! Are you dead?!” A suddenly awake Luffy screams as he sits up to discover his First Mate lying across his knees.

“I know that poking your fingers in my eyes is a surefire way to check, but it kind of hurts, Captain.”

( _In the back of her mind, the question echoes differently, hollow and cold like a lost, ghostly child._

_Her mind was put in this body._

_This body’s colours feel_ -wrong.

_But the shape is too familiar._

_What happened to her other body? Is it… gone? Does that mean that she doesn’t exist anymore in that world? That she can’t go back?_

_She thinks that she should probably be terrified at the idea of not existing. That maybe her mind should burn, or her blood should freeze, or her lungs should crumble._

_She_ knows.

_But she can’t… can’t quite manage it. Can’t quite remember where she’s supposed to go to_ feel.

_Maybe because the emptiness is always there, prowling around the borders of her self inside her, ebbing and flowing, eating and eating and eating at her, and then regurgitating her to devour her all over again -and_ ~~_she wonders what will happen if she ever fades entirely into its jaws_~~ _._

_Not suffocating._

_Just…_ there.

~~_Tempting, sometimes_ ~~ _._

_Maybe because the emptiness makes her wonder if she even knows what it means to exist, what it_ feels _like._

_Most days, the quickest answer her brain can come up with is that pain is the best way to be sure that she’s alive, but she has too much fear in her to test that theory, and enough memories of others’ love to not need to_.)

There’s a flick against her forehead.

It’s harder than usual.

“Don’t call me that!”

She gazes up at her Captain in confusion, the longer strands of his black hair tickling her nose as he leans over her further.

She scrunches her nose in distate.

_Damn it, that bastard._

His hair is disgustingly soft.

( _She’s such a goner. How is she supposed to keep a minimum of distance with_ this?)

She should probably focus on the matter at hand, though.

“What are you talking about?”

“Why don’t you call me by my name?”

“But… I thought you liked being called ‘Captain’. I call the others by their name.”

He scowls fiercely, anger sparking in his eyes, and he flicks her forehead again, like he can slap away all the dumb thoughts in her head that make her do stupid things. The others are silent around the both of them, and even though she can’t see any of them, she knows that none of them are intoxicated enough to not notice Luffy’s shift in mood. 

“You’re not Coby, so don’t talk like him! Why do you look at us like strangers when we’re nakama? I don’t _want_ to be a stranger to you!”

And her mind goes _ah_. 

She forgot three things.

Outside of her circle of close people, she’s polite to a fault, even uses polite phrases with those her age or younger than her sometimes. Unless she’s clearly signified that a person intends to stick around, she barely speaks half the things she thinks, because she knows it can seem offensive or out-of-line. But these guys behave with her like she’s a crewmate who will stay with them for a long, long time ( _she just might, if she doesn’t exist anymore_ **_there_** ). And it makes her forget herself and the rules she obeys to ( _they’re worth nothing in the world of pirates_ ), makes her behave with them with the same familiarity, using honorifics being the only way she found to try and maintain a bit of distance.

That's what she wants to do, so that maybe she would hurt them less if she leaves, but she forgot that the way she dismisses and represses her emotions ( _even if she knows what they are_ )… Well, it's not the way they do things ( _maybe Nami does that -she's a good liar after all, but Elynna isn't blind to the point that she cannot see the difference between the smile the navigator threw at them when they met and the smile she gives them now_ ). She might hurt them less if she ends up leaving, but in the meantime what little distance she's creating gives them only anger and incomprehension _-hurt_.

And even though she knows it, somewhere amidst the veils of her mind, she never experienced it in each and every cell. But she knows that danger can build trust, and even though she did **nothing** ( _even though she can only do nothing, nothing except lie lie lie_ ), she stayed with them ( _because her body’s fear kept it from obeying her brain’s order to_ run _, or because her mind wondered whether death would be a good idea, and gave no order to her body_ ), and it’s enough for them to extend a measure of trust and care that maybe she never had with anyone else.

_This won’t work_ , she realises.

It’s all or nothing.

Either she stays, and gives as much of herself as she is capable of.

Or she leaves.

She sighs. Her decision is already made, after all.

( _She’s already convinced herself that they’re her best bet to find a way home._

_And maybe_ -just maybe, _she craves to knows what it would be like to have people she trusts with so much of herself, people she loves so much that she feels it down inside the very marrow of her bones, so deeply that even on the worst days, her mind won’t be able to convince her that it’s all just words she tells herself and others._

~~_that there’s something wrong with her, something lacking that should be here but isn’t_ ~~ _-)_

“But I haven’t found nicknames for any of you yet…” She eventually says.

It’s not like she’s going to spill everything she’s been thinking and planning to do all of a sudden either. 

“… Nicknames?”

Now her Capt- _Luffy’s_ frown looks more confused than angry, a shadow of excitement playing around the corners of his mouth.

“Yeah. I like giving nicknames to people I choose to be close with, but it takes me some time to come up with them...” She mumbles, eyes roving where they can to not look at him.

Although she _is_ trying to avoid questions on why she’s been using polite speech so far, this is the truth. As silly as it is, she’s always felt that nicknames are proof that she managed to really get close to someone ( _that they accept her, and everything_ -bad- _that she is_ ).

For someone who prides herself on being rational and presenting herself as such, it’s more than a bit embarassing to admit.

“You should’ve just told me that, Ann! You’re really dumb, sometimes!” He shouts at her, leaning even closer until he’s in her face and all she can see ( _until she can only be sure that there’s no hint of anger on his face anymore, just a wide, laughing mouth and eyes crinkled shut by the amusement at her silliness_ ).

“Back off, Luffy, I bet you’re going to bash her in the head or something if you keep getting closer.” Nami’s voice huffs from above him, and a creamy-skinned hand with long, elegant fingers spanned across the boy’s face suddenly pushes his head away from her.

Except the navigator puts all her strength in pushing him backwards, and his neck ends up stretching to allow her to keep pushing.

“Ew, gross.” The redhead groans when she sees that, and she immediately lets go, sending Luffy’s head crashing into his own knees, since Elynna took the time to roll out of her earlier position and is dusting her clothes, standing next to him.

“Nicknames, Elynna? Didn’t know you had it in you. That’s cute.”

“Thanks, I’m practicing to get better.” She retorts dryly, but her cheeks are flushed in embarassment, and Nami giggles.

“I want a cool nickname!” Luffy exclaims as he jumps to his feet, obviously unaffected by the encounter between his forehead and his knees.

“I hope mine will well represent the greatness of the hero I am.” Usopp follows up from beside him, striking a pose that is probably meant to be nickname-inspiring.

“Like I care.” Elynna returns blankly, deciding that teasing is the best way to definitely distract everyone away from the less attractive directions this conversation can take. “I choose the nickname, and you don’t get a say. If I want to name the Cap- Luffy Marshmallow, I will, and no one can stop me.”

The rubber boy’s face is a mix of dismay, dead fish stare and _but I’m the Captain!_

Usopp seems suddenly a lot less interested by the prospect of getting a nickname, and Zoro is muttering something from his seat that she can’t hear, but considering his tone he might as well be debating with himself the benefits of jumping into the sea and swimming to the next island.

Nami, on the other hand, seems to find the idea hilarious, snickering gleefully at her side.

“Ohhhhhhh. Now that’s more like you. You’ve got a great naming sense by the way.”

“I know, it’s an innate talent.”

“I’m sure it is. So if Luffy is Marshmallow, what’s Zoro’s nickname?”

“... I’d say Teddy Bear, but I might explore more possibilities.”

“Babe, you’re perfect. And I think Loverboy would suit Usopp just fine.”

“That’s evil, but evil is sexy, and since it’s you I’ll take the idea into consideration.”

By now all three men are K.O., and both girls exchange a highfive and a laughing, machavellic smirk.

“So what’s mine? Come on, gimme some good cliché.”

“Candy Princess.” Elynna offers, batting her eyelashes and entirely straight-faced.

It lasts all of two seconds before her eyes meet Nami’s, and they both find themselves breathless with laughter and sprawled on the deck where the boys lay, picking up the pieces of their virility.

“I think we should change the name of the crew. It doesn’t really fit anymore.”

“You’re right, you’re right. How about… The Rainbow Pirates? Or the Cuddly Pirates?”

“Nooooooooo…” Luffy’s soul moans as it flies away from its body, clearly having decided that it was too heavy and hindering its escape from this fluffy, pink hell.

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

**She’s running, breaths tearing her apart from within, air scraping her throat raw because it’s too pure, too pure for the mistakes she did and the words that she let out of this throat** ( _she’ll cut off her own tongue to make sure that she won’t hurt anyone again like that, just please- please let everyone_ live-)

**She runs and runs and runs, muscles burning like guilt and punishment and selfish despair, but the path feels longer and longer, and her legs feel like lead, like shackles and duty** ( _it’s her fault, she’s the one who has to make things right-_ ). **Like the weight of lives upon lives upon lives, children and elders and men and women, who are waitingwaitingwaiting, suffering, while she keeps runningrunningrunning, but she’s too slow, too weak, too stupid-**

**and the road keeps getting longer, and the sun is being eclipsed by jagged shadows and the sky-wide wave that is perpetually rushing towards home but never quite reaching it.**

**Her arm blisters and breaks and ruptures like defeat** ( _you’re my little navigator, Nami_ ) **, and she screams, but she’s all alone and no one can hear her-**

A gunshot explodes like a sound wave, and Nami springs forward, trying to free herself from whoever is holding her back because they don’t understand, she has to- _she has to do_ **_something_ ** , or Bellemere will bleed out ( ~~ _she’ll_ **_die_**~~ ), but her hands are trembling and _everything is trembling_ and the darkness is pressing into her, entering her mouth and tainting it with the stench of dried blood and failure and _shecan’tbreathe_ -

A door opens, bringing with it the salty, fresh, purifying coolness of the sea.

The black is chased away by the dark blue, velvety cover of the sky, stars twinkling like a thousand lighthouses in that rectangle, throwing light and shadows over the vague features of a chubby girl with sunless skin and hair like the deap ocean and eyes like its very bottom ( _dark and millenia old, untouched by light or humans and their rules, their destruction, their hopes-_ ).

_Oh_ , Nami realises abruptly, and her lungs stop trying to run away from her. 

_She’s at sea_.

She’s at sea, with that bunch of weirdos she wishes aren’t making it so hard for her to think about leaving them, and Bellemere is already dead but she can still save the others so she’s _fine_.

Her hands shake with tremors again, and she clenches them. She shifts the messy pieces of her face around, until the fists rubbing at her eyes look like they are rubbing at grit rather than tears, until the shuddery sobs still stuck in her throat just sound like a yawn, hoping that there isn’t enough light to make all the cold sweat on her body visible.

Because she knows that Elynna pays attention. Because she knows that Luffy’s First Mate is much more careful and much less honest than Luffy himself, and she can’t really tell what she’s thinking or feeling most of the time.

“Ah, sorry. Did I wake you? There was more wind than I thought, so I ended up closing the door pretty loudly.”

_It wasn’t a gunshot. Just a door._

Her shoulders relax a bit more.

“It’s alright. Being a light sleeper is kind of a must to be a navigator.”

“True.” The pirate hums, and tilts her head on the side, still watching her with these opaque, pensive eyes of hers.

Not scanning her, or analysing her, or twisting a blade in the tiniest cracks or her mask ( _even though it’s molded to her skin by now_ ) to fish out secrets and hidden thoughts.

Just… _looking at her_.

It’s not invasive, as if she will keep everything she sees to herself, as if she won’t push unless Nami pulls first.

( _It’s tempting like the warmth of a cup of hot chocolate and a crackling fireplace in the middle of a snowstorm, like the sound of the slave collar around her throat that keeps away all the tears and the screams and the_ IhatehimIhatehim **Ihatehim** _clinking against the ground._

_She finds it even more frightening._ )

Nami watches her warily as the other girl steps fully into the room and asks her for permission to open the curtain hiding the window before closing the door, casually explaining that she’s not use to full darkness in her room -or the rocking of a boat- and that she doesn’t want her first sensation in the morning to be the pain in her toes when she inevitably knocks them into something.

She can’t tell if that’s the true reason, or if Elynna accurately deduced that she needed at least some light right now ( _even if the light in her life feels further away and smaller than the stars_ ). 

Maybe it’s both, even.

Nami decides petulantly that she hates this girl, as she watches her plop down on her own bed, the large, way too big baby blue t-shirt that she bought as an equivalent of a nightgown riding up her thighs and slipping down her shoulder, revealing thick, white flesh that shimmers under the sliver of moonlight filtering through the window.

Her thick, dark curls pool like ink in her collarbone and trace dark rivers on the silver white of her skin. The murky eyes that Nami can _swear_ look dark blue in the sun are black holes entirely focused on her.

She looks monochrome ( _unreal and inhuman too_ ), and a bit too haunting for Nami’s self-imposed girlfriend diet at the moment.

( _She can’t bring his attention on anyone_ -it would feel like killing them herself,

_and her body shakes like a crumbling mountain when she thinks of putting another life on her shoulders,_

_But maybe one day, she can go back to that market and flirt back with the girl with skin like sleek ebony and jokes so silly she made her laugh even though she was at her lowest point, having failed a loot and feeling like her freedom was swimming away from her with a shark-like smile._

_Maybe one day, she can meet again that bounty hunter with princess curls that gleam like the gold who will save all of them and who carries a giant meat cleaver like it’s a bunch of balloons, who made love to her for her first time with a body rippling with muscles that could crush her but didn’t, who told her ridiculous stories and showered her in compliments and waited until she was completely ready._

_In the meantime, she squashes away the part of her brain that protests that_ she’s a pirate, her life is all about danger, _and_ Luffy and Zoro are here to protect her and make her strong.)

“Hey, can I sleep with you?”

Nami chokes.

That little part of her brain screams _Yes!_

She mentally punches it into oblivion, and falls back into what is becoming horrifyingly usual with this girl to regain her composure: flirting.

“Am I that irresistible that you’re going to cheat on your boyfriend again?”

“We just broke up anyway. And I didn’t mean sex...” she corrects, and suddenly she flashes her that cheeky, dimpled grin that Nami really wishes she would keep hidden ( _really_ ). “Though I wouldn’t mind.”

An embarassed squeal and a fit of giggles fight in Nami’s throat, and she ends up choking on both.

“I mean can I just sleep next to you?”

“Why?”

“... ‘Cause I like to do that?”

And when Nami looks up, suprised at the sudden hesitation that is offsetting her usually monotone voice and making it so unsure, she finds that Elynna isn’t looking at her eyes anymore, but at somewhere around her knees, lips twisted with something dull like recurrent fear. 

_If she likes it so much, why didn’t she ask for it earli_ -

Oh.

_Oh_.

She remembers the understanding dawning on Elynna’s face like a new sun after Luffy’s drunken rant, and suddenly she _understands_.

All this time the First Mate spent with them, despite the jokes and her careful hands on their wounds and the neutrality of her voice in the midst of their vibrantly clashing opinions, she was- _she was being guarded_.

The few grins and bouts of laughter… were slip-ups.

But somehow she has apparently decided that they are trustworthy. She’s letting down her guard and reaching out to them -to her. Literally.

Still silent, she watches as the smaller girl starts to squirm ( _the girl who blurts out shamesless sex jokes on a daily basis and jumps in a burning shop for a dog_ ), staring at her own hands, shoulders curling around her heart the longer the silence goes on, cheeks and throat and collarbones so red she seems about to combust ( _she looks like she_ wants _to_ ).

_She doesn’t know how far she can reach out_ , Nami realises.

And then: _she’s expecting to be rejected_. Humiliated maybe, even.

And in that moment, Nami wonders what led her to become so guarded in the first place. Wonders if she’ll be like that too, one day. 

( _if, when she finally buys her freedom, she’ll be able to wash off the veneer of_ fakefakefake _melted into her skin over the years -so many years and sometimes she feels so_ old-)

She also remembers how, when she goes back home ( ~~ _even if it hasn’t really felt like home since_~~ -), she sometimes sleeps in Nojiko’s bed like when they were little, and how these are the only nights where she knows for sure that the nightmares won’t come to sink their claws into her.

“Okay.” She finds herself saying, and she convinces herself that she’s doing it entirely for her peace of mind and not even a little bit for the girl in front of her who looks about to offer to throw herself off the ship right now for her forgiveness.

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

Sleeping with Elynna isn’t the same thing at all as sleeping with her sister.

Nojiko begins the night pressing her back against hers like a silent promise of support, and usually ends up spooning her at some point.

Elynna keeps pressing her cold feet to Nami’s legs despite her squeals of protest, until the blanket is twisted around their limbs and she’s giggling like the little girl she’s hasn’t been for a long, long time. And then she finds her nose stuck at the base of Elynna’s throat while the pirate wraps an arm around her shoulder and throws a leg over her hips while the other slips between Nami’s own legs, somehow wrapping herself around her despite being smaller than Nami.

For the first few minutes she can hardly forget how her collarbones and the top of her cleavage is pressed against the dark-haired girl’s own breasts, and she smells like the sea and sun-heated stones instead of orange blossoms.

But eventually, Nami curls one of her arms around Elynna’s waist and settles her head on her other arm, letting herself sink into the warmth. It’s not a promise to protect her from the whole world, but it feels like someone is running at her side, and it’s nice too.

If she feels lips wobbling into a small smile against the crown of her hair, she says nothing, and if Elynna hears her sigh of relief or feels it tickling her skin, she makes no comment.

It’s not like Nojiko, but the feeling is similar enough that Nami’s last thought, as she drifts into a fitless sleep, is that despite how colourless she looks and how distant she acts ( _has been acting?_ ), Elynna feels pretty warm.

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

Elynna wakes up with someone’s breath fanning her throat, a metallic and vaguely citrus-y scent in her nose, and limbs weaving through hers.

It feels… good.

Warm.

She takes a deeper breath, memories trickling back into her sleepy brain.

She’s a pretty light sleeper, so when Nami’s sleep became agitated, it didn’t take long before it woke her up. Unsure of what to do ( _trying to subdue her physically sounded more like it would freak her out, and she would probably get hit at some point, which… not cool_ ), she got up and walked out of the cabin, slamming the door close and hoping that the noise would be enough to break the other girl out of whatever bad dream ( _or memory_ ) she was trapped in.

She stayed outside for two or three minutes before coming back in, and the faint light and gust of wind that came in with her seemed to calm Nami down enough.

( _She looked almost as white as the body Elynna was dumped in, eyes snapping wildly to the entrance of their room like it was both a threat and the last straws of hope she was clutching to._

_For a moment, there was no recognition in her eyes when they landed on Elynna._

_It cut her breath short right through her throat, made her mute with pain and crushed hope and the cold, steely realisation that she’s all alone._ )

She has no idea how to help with this kind of problem, because she doesn’t know anyone in her homeworld who ever faced it, but she managed to make Nami laugh and stop trembling, and she figures that’s as much good as she’s going to do. The thief has no reason to trust her with what is branding screams inside her nights, and she’s not a psychologist. 

( _doesn’t know how far she can push, how far she should push, doesn’t know what to do with what’s she’s told-_ )

Asking to sleep with the navigator was as much for her as for herself. She did it for the first time with her ex-boyfriend. It surprised her, how much she liked having someone else next to her while she slept -even without having sex- when she is so unfamiliar with physical contact in the first place. 

( _More than that, while she doesn’t often have nightmares, she wishes that she had someone to touch and cuddle with, someone to share warmth with on all the nights where the emptiness weighs like lead in her chest, where she can’t distract her mind away from it and the tears are like cruel kisses behind her eyelids and her breath is like liquid fire and silent screams, where her chest is hollow and her arms are so_ **_empty_** **-** )

She thought that Nami might be one of those people for whom hearing another heart beat beside theirs can help, even if they don’t want to talk about the twisted shadows created by their own minds.

She doesn’t know if it really worked, but at least it didn’t make things worse.

She forces herself out of her thoughts, and carefully extracts her limbs from the other woman’s and rolls out of bed.

Zoro is already training when she comes out, both hands clenched around a ridiculously huge barbell that he’s slashing down repeatedly, another one -similarly huge- trapped between his jaws. Apart from his arms, he’s barely budging an inch.

For a few seconds, she allows herself to watch idly as his biceps bulge and rivulets of sweat run down his face and chest. Not too long, though. Looking at someone because they’re attractive is okay, but ogling them makes her feel uncomfortable -both for the person and with herself.

“You’re late.” He somehow manages to convey clearly around the object in his mouth, not looking at her.

“No I’m not.” She rolls her eyes.

“Are you telling me you don’t want to train?”

“No, you idiot. I’m telling you I’m not training before my injury is fully healed, because it would make it even worse.”

He huffs in annoyance, but lets the matter go as she goes on to hop towards the kitchen for her breakfast. Her Capt- _Luffy_ is already there, and already eating meat.

“There are other things you can eat, you know.”

“Yeah, but it’s the best!” The slightly smaller boy beams at her, the implied suggestion of diversifying his diet clearly sailing way over his head -not that she expected anything else.

She sets about making something for herself, offering to do Usopp’s share as well when he joins them.

“Oh, thanks Elyn- Hey! You could at least put on some clothes before coming here!” He cuts himself off, scarlet red splotched like paint on his tanned skin as he averts his eyes from her chubby, white thighs that are barely half-covered by her night shirt.

“I don’t see how it’s any worse than you.” She comments with a pointed glance at his shirtless self. “Now shut up and sit down, or no breakfast.”

“Hey, hey, Ann! Could you dance for us today, I wanna see!” The other boy demands loudly, bouncing in his seat from sheer anticipation.

“No.”

He deflates like a punctured balloon, whining in disappointment. Considering that Elynna finds it just as cute as his enthusiasm, she’s probably a bit of a sadist.

“But whyyyyyy?”

“Because unlike you lot, she has the common sense to not push herself while she’s healing, which is probably why she’s the one who ends up taking care of everyone’s wounds.” Nami answers in her place from the doorway.

She’s wrapped in a silky, pearl grey dressing gown with swirling, silvery patterns that shimmer in the morning light. It’s extravagant, and she pulls it off ridiculously well.

“Nice.” Elynna comments, prompting a pleased smile from the redhead.

“Thanks. I stole it.”

They both snicker.

“Figured.”

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

The Nickname Attribution goes like this:

( **One** )

Usopp is the first to get his. 

( _Hint: it’s not Loverboy._ )

On their first day of sailing, the new crew member demonstrates his artistic skills by salvaging the atrocity Luffy calls their pirate flag ( _which Elynna maintains is much more suitably terrifying compared to the edited version provided by their new resident painter_ ).

It isn’t hard to impress her with drawings, considering how bad she is at it herself, but what she really compliments the heavily blushing Usopp on is how he managed to perfectly replicate their symbol on the mainsail, which is so large that he can hardly see exactly what he’s doing.

He has a chance to display the entirety of his skills no later than that afternoon, and Elynna blames it all on Luffy’s unlucky-but-lucky curse. Somehow, the Captain decides to try and use the cannon they received along with the ship, and when he shoots the cannonball towards what he thinks is some kind of small island -which he completely misses, it just _has_ to turn out to be an island _used by another pirate crew as a resting spot_.

So of course the other crew is quick to conclude that they’re being intentionally attacked ( _they really aren’t_ ) and get to their boat to sail straight towards them.

Nami is just as quick to find a current close to them to give the Going Merry a boost, especially if they’re positioned just right to take advantage of the wind they have at the moment.

But the other boat is more modern, and catches up before they reach the perfect spot.

And then a Marine ship shows up out of nowhere on the other side of the Merry, and sails closer to put them in their range, since they have a pirate flag ( _so recent that the paint still isn’t completely dry_ ). So the rest of the Straw Hat Pirates are left to take care of both their attackers while the navigator leads the boat in the right direction.

Luffy and Zoro are so clearly pleased with the situation that Elynna vaguely considers the possibility that it was all planned, before remembering that planning definitely isn’t part of their Captain’s strong points.

Her and Usopp groan and drag their feet. A lot.

A better boat turns out to be the only point on which the Bear Pirates have the upper hand on them, because when they eventually catch up to them, they fire grappling hooks so that they can run on them to join the Going Merry.

While both boats are still moving.

Zoro and Elynna, who are standing on that side, stare at the hooks hanging on their ship’s rail, and exchange a glance. The latter raises both eyebrows in an incredulous expression.

_Did they just-_

The swordsman scoffs.

_Yeah. They did._

And without waiting for her reply, he jumps on the enemy boat ( _because clearly ropes and hooks are overrated_ ).

Leaving the First Mate to hop along the rail on her uninjured leg and fling the hooks off the rail ( _and the attackers running on it at the same time_ ). By the time she reaches the last, a few have already made it to the deck, but Nami is there to knock them out from behind, having apparently finished setting the course of the Merry just right.

So Elynna turns around to look at how Luffy and Usopp are doing with the Marines, only to find that the former has looped his arms around one mast and his legs around another, allowing the latter to catch the Marines’ cannonballs and launch them back with his body.

“Two! Try two at the same time, Usopp!”

“Okay, Captain! This is but a warm-up to the Great Captain Usopp!”

“I’m the Capt- Ack! I said two, not five! I’m gonna slip!”

“Boys…” Nami groans with a loud facepalm.

Somehow Usopp, while screaming at Luffy who is also screaming, manages to launch back all the heavy spheres so that they each land on the Marine ship.

(- _for a moment, Elynna wonders if the bodies of this world can survive this, if she would feel anything if she was in Usopp’s position, knowing that she might be killing people that she doesn’t see._

_But then she remembers that she made pirates fall into the sea not two minutes ago, that some of them might drown or have a terminal encounter with some hungry creature or another._

_She feels vague queasiness at the idea that she might have killed someone, but mostly just an empty stretch of nothing, and the thought that it was their lives or hers and that of her… friends_ -it echoes like a question even in her own mind, _that theirs aren’t worth less but aren’t worth more either_.)

She lets out a high-pitched whistle as they eventually escape, looking at both the smoking remains of the Marines’ ship and the pirates’, whose sails are shredded by Zoro’s blade, rendering them unable to follow the Going Merry ( _the swordsman was really not satisfied with the entertainment they provided him_ ).

“You did a number on them. Do you have the eyes of a hawk or something?”

The foreign word stops him in his preening, and she finds herself having to explain how that animal has a much better vision than humans, and uses it to spot its prey from afar -apparently the sniper never heard of them before but knows other birds of prey. Then Nami asks her how to say it in English, and when Elynna muses that _Hawk_ would make for a not-so-bad nickname, Usopp begs her to do that, having apparently been traumatised enough by the Loverboy idea that he had nightmares about the Rainbow Pirates during the night.

She takes pity on him.

( **Two** )

Zoro is second, and frankly she should make him wait and give it to him last, because he’s clearly trying to kill her with the shit he calls training.

As soon as she can walk normally, he tells her to join him on the deck the day after. Very early. Which isn’t that much of a problem because she’s usually awake around that time, but it doesn’t mean that she wants to be up at that time. ( _Spending a few hours with just herself and her thoughts feels good when she lives 24/7 with a bunch of loud weirdos, thanks._ )

He usually makes her start with stretches and strength training. She knows most of the exercises he gives her, and there are only a few that she really has a problem doing, but the problem isn’t that.

_The problem is how long he expects her to repeat the same exercise._

She’s used to a certain amount of effort, and she has a reasonable muscle mass for a girl who was a civilian till not long ago. But even with this body, three or four hours of constantly working out without breaks is _hell_. 

( _She tells herself that with her_ ~~_real_~~ _previous body she would be dead, but it doesn’t exactly make anything better_.)

Though she has to give it to him, Zoro is actually a pretty good coach. He doesn’t taunt her, just inflexibly pushes her to keep going even when she already tried to stop a few times before letting her take a break, even if she hasn’t reached the goal he set for her. She knows that it is a long-term goal that she has to reach little by little, and he doesn’t expect her to be able to keep up with him on the first day ( _because yes, he also does his own training while she drags herself through his exercises_ ).

She doesn’t comment on anything, because she knows that she has to do this.

( _a First Mate can’t be_ that _incompetent,_

_and they wouldn’t keep someone so_ _weak_ _on their crew, and she_ needs _them to keep her, maybe not just to go back home_ -)

She does glare a lot at him though. Especially since after that particular brand of hell, he _generously_ lets her be his partner for what he calls sparring and what _she_ calls moving target practice.

Well, his partner, or Luffy’s ( _who seems to find the Chase and Hit Elynna game very entertaining, and_ _doesn’t hold back_ at all).

She decides to focus first on dodging, because usually by that point she can barely move, let alone close her fingers into a fist and swing her arm with enough force to punch someone, even if she _had_ the opportunity to do it -which she doesn’t ( _also, she can hardly hit someone if they hit her first and she’s dead_ ).

Besides, it’s not like hitting someone, especially someone she knows and likes -no matter how much he makes her suffer- is something she’s used to. Even though she knows that she needs to learn ( _hiding and dodging and running away don’t win wars_ ), inflicting pain -or trying to- is something that she must force herself to do much harder than dodging it.

One day, by luck or skill she does not know -but she would rather bet on the former, she finds herself in Zoro’s range, knows that she can maybe hit his side, prepares herself for it-

And she backs out.

(- _remembers the red beneath his hand as he tried to stop the blood flowing from his side, remembers the needle trembling in her hand and the_ stench-

**_It was her fault_**.)

“I knew you were weak, but I didn’t know you were a coward.” Zoro spits in disappointment as he steps away from her, grey eyes flashing silver like his blades would if they weren’t in their sheaths -a small mercy he grants her for her first lessons. “I don’t think there’s anything I can do about that.”

_She doesn’t think there is either. She’s known it for years_ ( ~~has hated herself for years~~ ), _and she has yet to find the will to do something about it. Being brave sounds terrifying and exhausting and she’s already so_ tired-

She stares at him passively.

He scowls, eyebrows slashing fiercely downwards, teeth gleaming aggressively in the sunlight.

“I can’t follow someone who breaks their word. you told me you’d do your best. Why are you just standing there and not saying anything?”

_Because how is she supposed to tell him that in her world, the wound that Buggy inflicted on him would barely let him walk and breathe normally, even now? That maybe he would be dead, with all the blood he lost and all the strain he put on himself after that?_

_She_ _**can’t**_.

“What is there to say? You’re right when you say I’m weak and a coward. I’m just waiting for you to finish so I can get back to work.”

He scowls further.

She sighs.

“Sorry I’m too nice to automatically hit my crewmates.”

His sigh is as harsh as his voice.

“You better be.”

“Can you stop barking like a dog and attack me already? Unless you’re trying to provoke me into hitting you.”

“Who’s provoking who? Don’t compare me to a dog!”

She’s quick to dodge the first slash as she realises that he’s taken off their sheaths (- _fucking insane coach_ -) and vaguely thinks that he kind of does look like a dog with a katana in his mouth-

_Uh_.

Her mouth slowly stretches into a somewhat evil smile as she steps around another blade ( _she knows he’s going easy on her, but still she’s somewhat pleased that she’s already at nineteen successful dodges_ ).

“What are you smiling like that for?”

“Nothing, _Fang_.”

He frowns at the foreign word.

Her smile widens, and she translates it for him.

“You little-”

“Ow!”

He probably only holds back as much as needed to keep her alive after that.

_It’s still worth it._

By the end of the morning, she feels like all the water in her body has moved outside of it. And she can't talk. Or breathe without sounding like a pig being throttled. She feels a bit like it, too.

( _She's training in another thing too, because everytime he or Luffy do land a hit -often, they force her to keep moving if she doesn't want to receive a series of blows after that._

_Unknowingly, they're slowly carving a new instinct in every muscle of this body, the instinct to keep moving no matter how much it_ hurts, _no matter how much pain is radiating just beneath her skin, no matter how much it burns and how much the fire is greedily devouring all the breath she has._

_Because moving washes the pain away._

_She's never been hit by fists before, but she's had enough hard falls while learning some acrobatics to be pretty certain that she feels every injury like she would in her homeworld rather than like her crewmates do -even the weaker ones._

_Except the smaller injuries like bruises barely show up on this body, and the more serious ones fade away much, much faster._

_And really, considering that this body and her mind don't come from the same world, it would be logical that her brain would be convinced that she's supposed to feel more pain than the damage her body has actually taken._

_In the case she's right in thinking that moving her body allows her brain to realise that it's different from the… previous one, she's hoping that it will fade away over time._

_Most of all, she's hoping that if she engraves this instinct deep enough, her body will keep moving even in the case of an injury that her mind thinks should kill her._ )

( **Three** )

Nami is the third. She comes to crouch beside Elynna’s head one day, while she’s trying to catch the breath that begged her goodbye about two hours ago.

“Had a good date with Zoro?”

“I wish I was sweating for an entirely different reason.” She rasps, because even without air no one can stop her brain from making weird and absolutely innapropriate jokes. 

( _not when she has found people who laugh or make disgusted noises or glare or blush or ignore her, but never tell her to_ stop-)

Nami snickers.

“Yes, well, I don’t care why you’re sweating, you’re not touching the bed before taking a shower.” She dismisses, scrunching her nose in a way that is absolutely _not_ cute.

…

( _Okay, it is_.)

They ended up sticking their beds together. Sometimes they each sleep on one side. Sometimes their limbs tangle. Sometimes nails and fingers rub patterns into each other’s skin as they drowsily talk about random things and cuddle the other into sleep.

If there is one thing constant, it is that Nami hasn’t had any nightmare bad enough to wake her up ( _and Elynna regrets that she cannot do more,_ _regrets how much she loves this_ ).

“Do I look like I have so little hygiene sense?”

The tangerine-haired woman strikes a thoughtful pose, teasing grin hiding behind her pursed lips and eyes laughing.

Elynna tries to slap her leg, but even that turns out to be too much for her limp arm that falls back onto the deck.

She glares at it in betrayal, but it looks more like she’s about to fall asleep.

Nami bursts out laughing.

Elynna flops on her stomach with another groan.

“I hate the sun.”

“Of course you do. That’s why you take about as many naps on the deck as Zoro.”

“That’s just because he’s so cruel that I can barely move and really want to sleep.”

“Liar. You did it before we reached Usopp’s island too.”

“... Fine. I don’t hate the sun. But rain is still better.”

“Really?” The navigator asks after a moment of surprise as she sits down more properly on the deck.

“Taking a walk in the rain is the best.” 

“Even when it feels like a slap in the face?”

“Yup.”

“Even if it makes you sick the day after?”

She hums affirmatively.

“Snow is cool, too, when there’s enough of it that I don’t slip on black ice.”

There’s another moment of silence, and Elynna is about to fall asleep when Nami’s voice reaches her ears again, a distant whisper.

“I like tempests.”

“... Why?”

“It’s beautiful. Reminds me that nature is always the most powerful.” She answers dreamily, remembering these days where lightning storms and rolling waves would roar outside of The Room, and she would hear their worried whispers about _too much of a risk to go out_ and _let’s hope it won’t come too close to the island_.

( ** _It reminds her that even_ ** **they** **_are not invincible._** )

“... I guess so. Wouldn’t go out in the night, though. I’d probably trip on grass and split my head open or something.”

Nami guffaws and gets up, superbly ignoring the hand shaking in the air for help.

“Oh, come on...”

“Nope!”

“How can you be so hot and so cruel…” Elynna tries for a whine, but it comes out more like a sigh.

“It comes in a package!”

She raises her head from the heated wood of the deck just enough to glare at the thief’s back, and then at the general direction Zoro took once he was done beating her into a pulp.

_That explains some things._

Her head slams back into the deck, and she’s left trying to decide whether she has the courage to drag herself to the girls’ room, or if she’s going to stay here and cook under the sun while stewing in her own sweat ( _the skin of this body is awfully prone to sunburns, as she discovered the hard way_ ).

When Luffy decides that he wants to stop on an island that evening, Nami answers that she already has a planned destination, and the day after, late in the evening, they moor at an island trapped in the middle of meteorological phenomenons that Elynna doesn’t understand at all.

What she does understand is that as a result, it’s almost always snowing on the island. 

In their first morning when she trains -after making sure that there’s no risk of slipping, the activity is just enough to keep her body warm once she gets started, while the coldness of the air and the thin drops of ice cool down her skin. Both girls go on a walk in the afternoon, while Luffy and Usopp start some epic snowball fight -featuring equally epic storytelling- and Zoro is taking a nap on the deck with more layers of clothes than usual.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

Elynna stops for a moment, pointing her face to the sky and savouring the hundreds of snowklakes stinging coldly against her skin. She’s left her coat open, and already she feels her clothes beneath it become wet in some places, sticking to her skin.

“Snow looks good on you.”

“I’m blushing.” She drawls, opening her eyes to look at the navigator, who wrapped herself in warm clothes, pointed nose pink and cheeks redder than her hair with the cold.

She looks at her and thinks about how her mood shift as easily as the weather, thinks about the rains she loves so much and how it comes with or without the sun, in light drizzles that last hours and hours or sheets of water that drum and hammer against the world.

“Maybe I should call you _Rain_.”

Nami tilts her head at the English word, recognising it as one of the first words she asked the First Mate to translate for her.

“Does that mean you love me?”

“Stop fishing for compliments, Rain.”

Nami laughs, and snatches Elynna’s hand out of the air to drag her along the path.

They come back just in time to watch a snowball sail straight in Zoro’s face, and eat snacks while commenting on the rampage he goes on -and the two boys stuck in his way.

( **Four** )

Luffy is the last.

…

_Did she find his nickname much sooner?_

Absolutely.

_Did she wait that long just to annoy him?_

Hell yes.

He comes bounding in Nami and Elynna’s room after dinner one evening, while the latter is attempting to etch into her mind the chapter about how to take care of food poisoning ( _she thinks it’s a miracle she never had to deal with it till now -or maybe the idiots’ stomach just became resistant_ ) and the former is pacing around the room -it helps her think- and muttering under her breath, trying to determine what direction to take the Going Merry towards to restock on their supplies.

“Luffy! You could at least knock!”

“Ann!” The rubber boy screams instead, ignoring the gorgeous redhead as he throws himself next to his First Mate, whose lips twitch as she watches Nami clench her fist and take a deep breath. “I want a nickname! Everyone has one but me, and _I_ ’m the Captain-”

“Sure, Sea King.”

“-and it’s so unfair-”

He stops in his babbling.

And then his mouth stretches and stretches and stretches.

“Why did you choose that?” Nami asks curiously.

“Who cares? It’s cool!”

“Cause they’re strong, and his stomach is probably big enough to eat as much as one. Plus he’s gonna be the King of Pirates, so he’ll be the strongest in the seas, right?”

“That’s. Soooooo. Cooooool!” Luffy repeats, eyes lightning up in joy.

“Yes, yes.” Nami interrupts him, tone warring between fondness and annoyance as she nudges his feet with her own. “Now get off. I want to sleep.”

“But- I wanna sleep with you!”

“Yeah, no. You see, I like people to be silent when I’m sleeping. Right, Elynna?”

The other girl takes a look at the straw-hatted boy, sees his big, dark, puppy eyes and jutting lip-

… And gives up.

“Sure, you can sleep here.”

“You traitor!” Nami hisses, eyes already plotting Revenge.

She yelps as Luffy’s arm curls around her waist, and the next moment her face slams against her pillow.

She coughs.

“Luffy! You can’t do that! Are you trying to kill me?!”

Her only answer is a snore.

“Oh, fine…”

Elynna’s shoulders shake with silent laughter.

“You.” Her roommate points a long, thin finger at her face, but her lips are twitching. “Don’t think I will forget you.”

“I never got a threat and a confession at the same time before. I kind of like it.”

“... Oh my god, I’m sleeping.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. You got some answers on why Elynna was on the verge of passing out after crashing through the gates of Kaya's mansion and why she freaked out so much over the first Buggy Ball (among other things). Because clearly, I'm pretty sure that would be how I would end up -and it probably isn't the worst case scenario.
> 
> Yes, Elynna wants to snog everyone. And yes, it’s going to be a regular thing.
> 
> I can't blame her, I'm in love with everyone in this fucking crew (and a few others). 
> 
> Also SPOILER, Nami during the whole cake island arc? You know, when she's using the vivre card in the forest? Total gay panic on my part.
> 
> As for Bellemere, I just can't call her belle-mère because I'm French and in French it means step-mother and that's just a super weird name to have.
> 
> Anyway, see you next chapter, and I wish you all the best!


	9. EIGHT

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which, the author mixed some angst with a teeny tiny bit of humour and a sprinkle of fluff, and voilà.
> 
> (Oops.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Argh. Finally. I finished this chapter like five days ago, but then I opened my student space to revise my midterm and realised that I had several hundred slides to work through.
> 
> Cue the hysterical tears.
> 
> (On a positive note, I took a few minutes here and there to get started on the next chapter. Yay me.)
> 
> Anyway.
> 
> This chapter is probably the shortest after the prologue, but it's HEAVY and I had the perfect ending so yeah. Hope you enjoy (?)
> 
> As usual, huge thanks to everyone who so much as came to read this!
> 
> Disclaimer:I do not own One Piece, so anything that you see in this fic and that you can recognise as belonging to One Piece is not mine. If I did own it, I wouldn't have to write fanfiction. Duh.

**From The Sea - Dive|rgence**

  
  


**EIGHT**

  
  


_My grip is still_

_limp_

_But please keep holding on_

_to me_

_And one day I’ll believe that_

_I’m not alone_

  
  


**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

  
  


Elynna is floating not far from the Going Merry when Luffy and Usopp’s voices reach her ears, getting louder and louder.

She sighs.

Deeply.

She feels like a babysitter, and she is _not_ happy about it.

But if they end up breaking something, it’ll be even more of a hassle to deal with, so she swims back to the ship.

As soon as her injury was healed and she could swim again, she went straight to Usopp, who seemed to be the most creative and DIY-oriented crewmember, because if she wanted to swim again without any risk of getting left behind, she needed a bit of help. He didn’t disappoint, and came up with a rope system, with one rope tied to the rail that she can use to climb back on the ship when she’s done, as well as another looped around her hips and tied to several others to give her some length, the last of which is also tied to the rail.

“I’m telling you, the Dark Knight is the best hero!”

Raising an eyebrow, she leans her chin on her crossed arms resting on the rail of the ship, legs dangling against the sun-heated wood of the ship’s hull.

_Since when does Batman exist in One Piece?_

“No! Shanks is the best!”

Usopp looks very, very close to strangling Luffy.

“The Dark Knight is a guy from a story! I’m talking about characters, not people! Cha-rac-ters!”

There’s a moment of silence, and then Luffy frowns stubbornly.

“Shanks tells the best stories!”

Usopp stares at him for a moment, before flopping on his back.

“I give up.”

Zoro snores.

Elynna rolls her eyes.

The door slams open, Nami’s heels clacking confidently against the deck.

“Who is strong in this crew?” She calls out with the smile of a cat backing a canary in a corner -or a banker about to swindle his clients for little risks and big profits.

The three boys react so fast that it might as well be instinct at that point.

“Great! You three can accompany me in town! We have to stock up on some things, and I need help to carry everything.”

Zoro glares.

Luffy slouches with a disappointed whine, his entire body deflating as his enthusiasm mysteriously disappears.

Usopp throws a panicked glance to the clearly amused girl observing the navigator’s prey flailing around in her trap.

She considers his silent plea for a moment, before raising her hand.

“I’m stealing Hawk.” 

“Nuh uh. I need a valid reason to part ways with one of my sla- coworkers.”

That earns Nami a muttered slur from Zoro, who yelps when she grinds her heel on his foot.

“I’m gonna buy some books and I don’t feel like carrying them.”

“That’s a valid reason. I’ll leave him to you.”

“You’re too kind.”

They exchange winning smiles ( _maybe a bit too twisted, but that’s beside the point_ ).

Usopp groans from his spot on the floor.

“You two are evil. _Evil_.”

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

“What’s that Dark Knight you were talking about?” Elynna eventually inquires when the surrounding noise of Giuren’s relatively busy streets doesn’t seem to make the silence comfortable anymore.

“It’s a hero story from my village about how the founder killed a dragon with several heads so that he and his friends could build the first houses.” Usopp explains with a dreamy smile, clearly proud of his founding ancestor’s alleged feat.

“A hydra? I know a story like that too…” She muses.

“Really?”

“Yeah. About a guy who is born from the adultery of a god, so the god’s wife completely fucks up his life in retribution, since, you know, it’s easier to fuck him up than fuck up a god -among other reasons. So he ends up slaughtering his family and having to do that bunch of impossible tasks.” 

She supplements her summary with a smile of sadistic glee, and is greeted by the repulsed, morbidly fascinated stare of her crewmate.

“I should have known you’d be into that kind of stuff.”

“Sorry.”

“You’re not.”

“Nope.”

They stare at each other, before snickering as they start moving again.

“We should totally compile our stories, though.”

“Something tells me you’re not just saying that for the pleasure of being in the Great Usopp’s presence.”

“I’m a firm believer in mixing business and pleasure.”

“Define business.”

“Having something to shut Sea King up when he’s being too annoying.”

Usopp hums, thinking of the rubber boy’s credulity and enthusiastic reactions everytime he starts telling a story.

Then he remembers his words of _Shanks tells the best stories!_

Directed to _him_ , the crew’s unofficial storyteller, of all people.

If _that_ ’s not a challenge, then he doesn’t know what is.

“You’re a _genius_.” He approves with a smile that drips with fiery ambition and sunny eagerness, lacing his arm with hers.

“I have to compensate for the lack of brain cells on this ship.” She jokes. “By the way, we’re adding a notebook to your load.”

“... I hate you.”

“That’s awfully inconsistent of you, Haw- Ow! Don’t hit your superior, damnit!”

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

Despite its rather cool climate, Giuren is one of the most frequented islands of the area. Because of its size, that allowed the development of diverse economic sectors, of sizable infrastructure aimed at commercial purposes, and of the region’s Marine Headquarters that laid an additional veneer of appealing security. But also because of the reputation of its craftsmen and women that shows as soon as one steps foot in the island, where the architecture is certainly colourful and even verges on the bizarre, as if hesitating between architectural styles of different geographical and temporal origins, even within one single building.

Both Usopp and Elynna being at least appreciative of the spectacle -event if not especially interested in the technicalities behind it, they end up dropping their purchases at the ship before going for a walk in the porttown of Eyrtel, aimlessly wandering in the streets as they exchange occasional comment on a style or colour scheme that they particularly like or dislike -though Elynna has to grab Usopp and tug him out of the way several times before he gets bowled over.

At some point, they stop as they start debating on the merits of adding colours on the ship in a similar manner to the house they’re standing in front of.

“The Merry is going to be the King of Pirates’ ship! It has to look the part!”

“No freaking way. The sea is like a giant mirror on sunny days. I am not giving my consent to adding something as conjunctivis-inducing as earthenware and metal on the ship. I'm pretty sure we would drown before even having the time to get blind.”

“... You could just say flashy.”

“Are you questioning my right to free speech right now?”

“What does that even have to do with-”

“Ann! Usopp!”

Luffy’s voice makes them look up just in time to watch him slide to a stop before them.

“Hey hey hey! Guess what?” He asks, smile filled to the brim with all the stars that can’t fit in his eyes and hopping on the spot like a bunny on steroids.

“What.” They answer simultaneously.

“There’s an amusement park here!”

Usopp’s eyes go round in surprise, the corners of his mouth flung upwards with his sudden excitement.

“Really?! I’ve never been to one before!”

“Right?!”

Zoro and Nami, left behind by Luffy earlier, join them while the two boys are still psyching each other up about the wonders of amusement parks.

“I wanna go I wanna go I wanna go-” 

“Fine, fine, stop screaming already,” Nami conceded, interrupting his loud chanting. “I’ll give you some money for a few attractions, but don’t expect me to give you more.”

She throws a glance at Elynna for approval, and the other girl nods with a sigh.

_Better pick the lesser evil and let him have his fill, otherwise he’ll be unbearable._

“The haunted house! I wanna go to the haunted house! Skeletons are sooooooo cool!” Luffy whoops, his body almost vibrating with the enthusiasm bouncing through him.

And then he turns to them, forcefully conveying that going alone is about as exciting as not going at all.

“No way,” Zoro huffs. “That stuff is boring. I’m going back to the ship anyway.”

“Indeed, indeed. For an experienced ghost hunter such as myself, only the real deal can arise any reaction out of me. I would only spoil your experience.” Usopp nods along, a relieved sigh shadowing his words knowing that Luffy is the only person of this group who would believe all the words that come out of his mouth.

Luffy’s expression turns pitiful as he faces Nami.

“Nope, sorry. I’m going to see the magicians. They might have some tricks I could use.”

“Seriously? To steal?”

She sticks out her tongue at the swordsman.

“So what? They’re also stealing money, no? Plus, I only steal from pirates, so it’s okay.”

“We’re pirates too, you know.” He reminds her dryly while his Captain rounds on his last possible companion, looking downright desperate.

“... Fine.”

The word is a long, drawn-out sigh in Elynna’s mouth, like a balloon losing all air -or a girl without will.

( _Most of the time, sturbborness seems to her to be as much of a quality as a fault._

_There are moments though, when she wishes she can be stubborn for something else than forcing herself to finish her schoolwork._

_But she’s already bad enough at being a functional part of society on good days. She doesn’t want to deal with conflicts on top of it, so going along with what people want seems like the best way to avoid causing problems to others -and herself._ )

In a flash ( _so fast that she wonders if she imagined_ -dreamed- _it_ ), her Captain glomps her in thanks before dragging her off.

“I’ve never been to an amusement park before! Have you, Ann?”

“It’s more my sister’s thing, to be honest.” She mumbles, sticking closer to him to make sure that she won’t lose him in the thickening crowd.

_Ugh_.

She hates the noise and the walls of heat that come with crowds.

Luffy is loud and has way too much energy for someone like her ( _she feels like simply watching him jump around takes more out of her than she can ever hope to give_ ), but at least she can move around on the ship when she feels the fog rise in her head and her nerves start to fray, scrubbing her skin from beneath, uncomfortably close to the surface.

And it’s not like she minds his clinginess and his warmth.

( _Here there’s nowhere to run, though._

_But on the plus side, she doesn’t have to wear that grotesque mockery of a smile and pretend to enjoy herself, because he can do enough of that for ten people_.)

“You have a sister! What’s her name? I have a big brother, you know, he’s super great!”

He babbles on, and she pretends that each word doesn’t feel like a punch in her gut.

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

Elynna used to think that she did not want to enter a haunted house, because she probably wouldn’t like them.

She was right.

How did this even become a romantic trope, she probably will never understand.

As soon as the door closes behind her and Luffy, the hallway they entered becomes so dark that she can barely see him.

“Don’t go too far, Sea King. We’re both barely better than Zoro with directions, so we’re probably going to get lost anyway, but we should at least try to not get lost _separately_.”

Also, ending up alone when he’s the only reason why she accepted to come here in the first place would suck.

( _And despite the darkness Luffy’s presence feels like a warm summer day, which just_ might _prevent her impending heart attack. Hopefully._ )

“Okay!” He chirps, grabbing her hand to drag her along. “There! We won’t be separated.”

Somehow, it doesn’t feel like he’s just talking about the haunted house. 

( _It makes her chest warm with the heat of his skin and hot with tears._ )

She doesn’t shake him off.

Luffy ends up spending as much time laughing as he does screaming, which is half delight and half startled surprise anyway.

The employees look very confused as to what they should do.

He makes more than enough noise for two, which is good because Elynna is too tense to make any, and spends the entire trip following after him ( _it’s his fault she ends up here in the first place, like hell she won’t use him as a shield_ ), body stiff with an anticipating tension, a fear-before-the-fear that only makes her jump higher everytime she feels something brush against her skin in the darkness or a sudden noise that doesn’t come from Luffy reaches her ears.

It’s a good thing he’s immune to blunt force, because he would probably be angry with how tight she’s holding his hand otherwise.

( _Or maybe not._

_It’s him, after all._ )

She’s so tense that her jaws seem to have fused together, to the point that she can’t seem to remember how to open her mouth.

Maybe that’s why, when she finally manages to shake off a mummy and their bindings and turns around to find only darkness and silence, she lets the darkness devour her without calling any of their names.

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

At first she manages to stay somewhat calm, straining her ears and taking a few steps forward, arms extended to try and feel the soft fabric of his shirt or the warmth of his skin-

But then she reaches what seems to be a crossroad, and the uncertainty slams into her from all three pathways, like the darkness has become solid.

Suddenly she doesn’t know how to walk, how to stand on her own feet, how to think, how to _stop trembling, damnit_ -

She stumbles until her shaking, shaking hands touch coldcoldcoldcoldcold stone, and she slides down to the ground, at least until she loses her balance and falls, knees hitting the floor.

( _It vibrates through her like a bell ringing defeat after a long, long war._ )

Her mind is spinning spinning spinning- 

( _they’ve disappeared, everything has_ disappeared-

_she just knew it was a nightmare, but at least before it was a tempting one-_

_or maybe it’s worse?_

_or is she dead?_

_she doesn’t want to be dead, thinks that she has a lot of things to do, even if she can’t remember_ what-

_-can’t remember the faces that should hold her back_ -)

She forces herself to breath through the nausea clogging her throat ( _or maybe it’s the tears or maybe the_ **_screams_** **-** ), slightly long nails criss-crossing frantically over the skin of her arms ( _or is it her neck? her legs? she doesn’t know doesn’t rememberdoesn’t_ **_feel_** -).

It doesn’t really help, because it makes the sound of her breathing louder, but she can’t feel anything going in or out of her and _whereis h e r BoDy_ -

Her heart is so bloated by distant panic and empty emotions that she wants to rip it out of her chest so that she can finally **breathe** ( _so that she can finally_ **_think-_** ). 

Her mind is tainted with the shadows of another world that she can’t reach ( ** _that she will never_** -), feasting on the filth of her weaknesses and failures to drown her further inside herself. 

Her throat is being torn apart by burning tears and repressed sobs that she doesn’t know how to let out.

Blindly, she brings her hand to her mouth, and bites down.

It’s sharp and bright like a bolt of thunder beneath her skin, a spear of clarity burning away the mud of her panic.

She bites deeper and deeper and deeper, until it bleeds and her screams are washed away by the blood trickling into her raw throat.

( _think think think-_

_she sketches a little girl curled in on herself in her mind with the mad, black strokes of her forgotten nightmares,_

_as if she were another person,_

_as if it was someone else sitting there like a pathetic little_ child _,_

**_thinkthinkthink-_ **

_What. Would she._ **Think** _?_

_She would feel her body tense at the idea of breaking down like that in a public space where anyone might walk in, like a puppet without strings or master_

-but doesn’t that mean that she can choose?-

_She would think that you can never really get lost in the fabricated darkness of an amusement park’s haunted house, because there are doors and employees and it’s all fake, an illusion that isn’t that hard to dispel-_

_She would muse over how easily humans get scared by the dark and the loneliness, even when the light isn’t that far, even when it’s simple to get out-_

_It’s_ simple _._

**_Simple_** _._ )

She stills, the thought washing over her like the warm water of a shower casting away the last remnants of empty, heavy sleep clinging to her.

Her head falls against the wall, and she closes her eyes, eyelids heavy with the weight of what feels like two worlds and two lives combined.

Slowly, she breathes in and out as her muscles unlock one by one.

Eventually, her jaws part, leaving behind red crescents still wet with tears and saliva and blood.

She listens.

It’s faint, but she hears the screams of other customers.

A sigh rushes out of her mouth, taking away the blind terror and the dizziness and the nausea that made her shake.

( _Leaving her with a wide, gaping gulf inside of her, a shapeless weight draging her downdowndown inside her own, blank, empty mind-_

_like a black hole sucking in what little she has to give, until she’s a clean slate wiped of all emotion or thought or desire._

_Until she’s nothing but a threadbare body that isn’t hers,_

_an empty existence without any tie to anything or anyone in this world._ ) 

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

Time passes.

She doesn’t know how much.

Does not -cannot- care.

“I think it’s the first time I see a customer taking a nap in a haunted house. Or anyone, really. You have rather strange taste, miss.”

Only the old, ingrained instinct telling her that keeping her eyes closed in the presence of another makes her vulnerable stirs her enough to open her eyes, just enough that her gaze can fall on the newcomer.

The woman’s hair is a strange colour between red and pink like raspeberries, and her skin, dark like ebony, is painted in all kinds of shades, flowers with large petals and explosive colours, flowers with graceful, swirling vines and soft pastels, swirling and celebrating the white of the bones that seem to be jumping out from inside her skin.

Her features are blurry in Elynna’s barely-opened eyes, but they don’t seem particularly beautiful or particularly ugly.

All the same, there’s something haunting about her. 

_Haunting_.

The word bounces around in her mind, leaving garbled echoes that make no sense, find no resonance.

Eventually, it sinks into the void, and dies silently, heard by no one, remembered by no one. 

“Our boss won’t be happy if you stay here too long.” She holds out her hand, but the dark eyes remain fixedly pinned onto the flowers blooming on her skin with each movement of her mouth. The woman wriggles her fingers. “Come on, I’ll take you to the exit.”

No word.

No movement. 

Nothing.

The dark-haired girl’s breath is silent and invisible.

The painted woman frowns, and leans down to take hold of a white, cold, limp hand, and then proceeds to haul its owner along the corridor.

The girl stumbles after her, struggling slugishly to not fall as her mind attempts to settle into these heavy, heavy limbs that seem so distant and deaf to what little is left of her will.

Slowly, repeatedly, she moves the jaws of this body around, straining to inhabit this mouth and these bones, sensing somehow that she _must_ talk, lest the silence creeps further into her throat ( ~~ _into her mind_~~ ) and devours ( ~~ _obliterates_~~ ) what little remains of the wretched, parasitic ghost that she is.

_Haunting._

Yes.

She’s in a haunted house… 

Maybe?

( _Why?_

…

_Everything is blurry, as if diluted by tears that she doesn't remember shedding._ )

“What kind… of monster… are you supposed to… represent?”

The words feel heavy and awkward, wandering around foolishly in her mouth with no idea of where to go.

Her voice sounds distant and only vaguely familiar, like that one, old friend that gradually disappears from one’s memory after drifting apart from them.

( _Alien_.)

The woman laughs, low and rich like honey, sticking the girl’s half-awake mind into its web until it’s a crumpled mess.

“None, really. The island where I come from attaches a lot of importance to flowers... For example, anyone who is born there is given a specific combination of flowers depending on several factors, and we’re also the ones who came up with flower language, or at least the basics of it.” She glances back at the girl, and gestures to her own dark, painted face. “This kind of make-up is used during some festivals to represent the Flower Spirits who we believe protect the souls of our lost ones as long as we keep growing the right combination of flowers on their graves. I put it on on specific dates even though I’ve left my hometown, and the boss of this place happened to see me one day, so he hired me. I modified it a bit from the original version, though. It wouldn’t feel right to use it just any day. It’s nice of you to ask, though. No one has done so in quite some time.”

Still dragging the girl by the hand, the employee leads her through the dark maze of the house, eventually reaching a door from which a buzzing sound is coming, unrecognisable to the girl’s frazzled mind, which can barely muster up any curiosity as to the source of the noise.

“-et me in!”

“Sir, we really-”

“I’m telling you to let me in! I have to go look for Ann!” 

“Stop making so much noise already! It’s just a haunted house, she’s not going to disappear! And I’m not paying for you to go back in there! For once in your life, just wait!”

“No!”

“Dear customer-”

“I said no! She’s under _my_ protection, so I’m going to help her!”

“Oh my.” 

The Flower Woman looks half-surprised and half-amused at the noisy group of people standing a few feet away, and who visibly do not care about how much attention they’re drawing. Well, for those who aren’t employees, at least.

Behind her, the girl takes in the sight of the group, the noise reaching her in garbled splotches, one of her five senses being enough to monopolise all the attention and focus she feels capable of giving to the outside world at the moment. 

( _keeping her self together is_ **_exhausting_ ** **-**

_She’s numb,_

_the hold of the woman on the_ -her?- _hand merely the ghost of a weight,_

_the ground under the_ -her?- _feet a faltering, diffused impression that leaves her nauseous and unbalanced_.)

The smallest member of the group seems to be the one who makes the most noise, and his eyes shine too bright for her who has just stepped out of the darkness. The tangerine strands of the girl beside him are no better, and as dark eyes follow her waving hands like delicate birds painted with the same fiery shades of violence, she wonders if burning herself to her fire would help her remember what warmth means. She wonders if the blades in the hands of the taller male ( _in his eyes_ ) would cut her deep enough to remind her of the difference between existence and not-existence. She wonders how the last boy can put so much life in his voice ( _so much more than there is in her entire body-_ ).

She falters.

Her heart trembles, rattling its cage of bones.

( _She can’t tell if it’s fear,_

_if she wants to_ runrunrun,

_or it’s something else, if it’s longing,_

_for the strength and the warmth and the life that they are exsuding even from this far,_

_for the strength and the warmth and the life that she can’t muster up on her own-_ ) 

The flower woman chooses for her, dragging her further under the sun and towards the group.

“Excuse me, dear customers-”

“I told you I’m goi- Ann!”

The girl blinks, and then the boy with dark, mad curls is shaking her heavy, limp body energetically.

“Elynna, comrade! I had absolute confidence that you would vainquish this haunted, unknown darkness!” And then he leans in to whisper, voice low but more clear than all the sounds she’s ever heard. “But seriously, next time you get lost, don’t do it in a haunted house. I _really_ didn’t want to go in there.”

It takes her some time to connect the dots, to understand _what_ he is saying and the _context_ in which he is saying what he is saying.

( _Her mind is like an endless sea of colourless sludge, and she is helplessly trying to swim against the current, the current that is trying to take her somewhere and that she is fighting without knowing why, with less and less will as the seconds or maybe the years pass,_

_as blurry and messy, faded memories and thoughts float by without her being able to quite grasp them -cursed waters without goal-_

_she is struggling to keep her head up, to prevent the sludge from entering her mouth and slumping inside of her to feast on the emptiness within her in an orgy of oblivion that she_ knows _would erase her out of existence-_

~~_she is struggling to decide whether she should really keep fighting, because any reason or instinct to do so is but a faint, incomprehensible echo in the furthest corners of her sould, and_ she is so **tired**~~ **-** )

“So… rry?”

“You better be!” The redhead bursts out shrilly as she pushes the boy aside without a care for the way she sends him sprawling.

Her eyebrows are furrowed, and her eyes are crackling with thunder as she stares the girl down.

_Thunder._

_Tempest._

_…_ **_Rain_** _?_

She straightens up.

( _Her own voice sounds like a lost child even in her head as this one word spirals down down down_

_down to the bottom of the pit of grey mud inside her, memories blown away by the silent explosion slowly regrouping against its warmth.)_

“Oi, Nami-”

“Seriously, I thought you were supposed to be the responsible one, but then you had to go and get lost in an amusement park of all things! These idiots have been making a fuss, and-”

“Nam-”

“You’ve been making as much of a fuss as Luffy, you know.” The swordsman huffs as he stops beside her, before turning his gaze to the girl. “And you. Are you an idiot? I can’t believe you managed to get lost in a tourist trap.”

The owner of said tourist trap stiffens, smile twitching in growing annoyance.

“Now, Sir-”

“Guys, listen to me!”

“If she’s an idiot, then your brain cell count reaches the negative!” Nami cuts in, adding a punch to Zoro’s shoulder for good measure, though he barely grunts. “Seventeen! In the time it took us to buy everything we needed, I had to turn back seventeen times because you somehow managed to take the wrong direction while following us! The trip was at least twice as long as it should have been! You should give me money for putting up with that thing you call your brain!”

“I fucking won’t, you _witch-_ ”

“Listen to me, _damnit_!” Usopp eventually explodes. “Geez, Nami, you can’t just push people like that, especially the Great Us-”

“Shut up, Usopp.” The two others mutter without stopping their glaring contest.

Said boy puts his hands up like he’s dealing with two dogs running on an empty stomach, which they might as well be considering the way they’re baring their teeth at each other.

Something bubbles through the girl like sparkling water, and her lips tremble with the need to form something that she thinks is a smile.

“Got ya!”

She stiffens at the loud, sunshine voice that lights up right next to her ear as the smaller boy with the hat jumps onto her back and, like a koala, loops his limbs around her.

It feels like a promise to not let go rather than a cage.

His warmth seeps into her like energy, and the sight of the trio in front of her makes her world explode in colours and sounds that make her dizzy.

Elynna blinks repeatedly, as if waking up from a long, empty, fuzzy dream that recedes back into the confines of her soul.

“-ext time, I should buy you a collar to make sure that we don’t lose you. Or better yet, make you buy your own collar!”

“The hell I will!”

… _Wow, that’s kinky._

The world is a bit too full for now, and so the thought loses itself between her mind and her mouth and dissolves silently before Elynna can voice it out.

But it’s a full thought, fluid and clear enough that she doesn’t struggle to understand the meaning of her own musings.

It’s good enough.

The crowd around them disperses now that the problem seems to be solved, and the owner of the haunted house begins to lead them back to the entrance.

Elynna turns to the dark-skinned woman, deeply ingrained manners tortuously leading a whisper of thanks to her lips.

The woman smiles, and steps closer to take one of her hands in hers.

Elynna blinks when she feels her fingers being closed around what feels like a piece of paper.

She looks back to the woman.

“My contact information. Feel free to call me if you ever want to know more about my island.”

Another ‘thank you’ slips out, clearer but more confused, as she takes a glance at the information written on it, Luffy’s ridiculously fluffy hair tickling her cheek as he leans his chin on her shoulder to peek at it.

She starts walking away, steps hesitant as she struggles to keep her balance with all the information this too bright, too loud world is still dumping into her brain, burning through her nose and mouth and rubbing her skin raw.

“Please come back to Zarildor Circus!”

She stops, and turns around.

“... See you, Akane-san.” She calls out, voice a bit too hoarse still to really scream, waving her hand hesitantly.

The woman beams.

“Oh, and kids!”

Elynna’s crewmates turn around when they understand that they’re the ones she’s talking to.

“Don’t bring Elynna-chan to a haunted house again until she learns how to have fun! She looked like a lost little kid!”

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

They blink collectively.

_Elynna, a kid?_

… Somehow, these two terms together seem completely out of place.

( _Nami glances back at the other girl,_

_at her vague, ageless features,_

_at the way the shadows under her eyes seem to be eternally engraved there,_

_at the way every line and movement of her body slumps slowly, steeped in the kind of fatigue that is ingrained in the very marrow of one’s being and_

_~~that drags people down by their bones, until their face meets the ground and they don’t have the force or the will to get back up~~ -_)

“How old are you by the way?” Usopp asks suddenly as they finally pass the park’s gates.

“... Eighteen.” 

Her tone is strange, rising in the end as if she isn’t entirely sure herself.

“Eh?! I thought you were in your mid-twenties or something!”

Nami waits for the dry reply, for the joke about being an old woman stuck in a young body -for _anything-_

But nothing comes.

Instead, her roommate stares at something, or maybe at nothing.

They all exchange a glance.

( _Luffy slumps further over his First Mate_

_-just to make sure that she wouldn't run away or forget about them or-_

_His fists clench, and he thinks once again that he should have been there, that he has_ **_failed_** _, because someone who is his to protect needed him and_ **_he wasn't there-_** )

Something-

Something is very, very **wrong**.

Elynna’s emotions rarely paint her face in loud shades, but it still seeps into her voice and swims in her eyes most of the time.

Right now though, she just looks like a blank page, and she usually is so focused on her surroundings -even when she doesn't interact with them- that she's often the first to notice the small but important things. But it barely looks like she registers anything happening around her currently.

It’s like the world is a wave slapping against the rock of her body, chipping away at her soul, just a little bit more everytime without any reaction from the rock, and her eyes are so horrifically vacant, _she’s_ vacant-

Nami grabs the First Mate’s hand and tugs her to her side, half to prevent her from colliding with a group of tourists and half to be sure that the other girl isn’t going to dissolve in the sunlight and disappear.

( _Because in that moment, she looks as fragile and fleeting as a mirage._ )

There’s no reaction.

Whether to the sudden contact or the abrupt change of direction, she offers no reaction whatsoever, and suddenly the sun doesn't seem as warm on the Straw Hat Pirates' skin.

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

As soon as the ship sets off, Zoro goes to lie down on a sunny spot of the Merry, as if trying to shake off the darkness of that haunted house -because it might just leave him in the same state as his First Mate.

It only takes a few minutes before the light of the sun dims behind his eyelids.

But when he opens them, it’s not to the sight of Luffy’s face, but of Elynna’s, as she crouches beside him, and stares.

Not through him, but _at_ him.

( _He will never, ever speak of the way his body melted into the warm wood of the deck as it sighed in relief._ )

“Can I nap with you? I promise I won’t do anything.”

Maybe she’s trying to make this sound like one of her usual jokes, but her voice sounds so… almost-gone ( _like she’s dangling above a bottomless pit in her own mind, and she’s losing grip_ -) that he can only hear it as a call for help that she only half-allows herself to voice, and-

( _and he doesn’t know her much, and she annoys him sometimes,_

_but she’s a crewmate, and he wouldn’t join this crew or offer to train her if he really couldn't stand her, so_

_like hell he would turn his back on her_ )

He grabs the hand that she doesn’t dare to hold out, and tugs.

He really did not envision it like that, and so he stiffens up when she carefully lies down half-over him and then slowly slides a hand beneath his shirt to rest it on his ribs.

But then she sags against him, and this time he can _see_ her body move when she breathes.

( ** _Alive_** )

She doesn’t move further, just like she promised, and eventually he relaxes and closes his eyes again.

Somehow, he feels like she will find a way to trap him into doing this again even when she’ll be back to normal.

( _He’s right._

_But if that means that she_ will _be back to normal, it’s not so bad._ )

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

Eyes closed and forehead pressed against Zoro’s chest, Elynna lets the sound of his heartbeat and the solid heat of his skin against her fingertips become her whole world.

He’s alive.

**They’re alive.**

_This is real._

They all looked worried. Because of her.

Somehow, a tiny bit of the importance she gives to fulfilling others’ expectations survives, and she curls her tattered self around it, progressively gathering the remnants of her will to crawl her way out of the heavy, blank sludge filling her.

If she had any energy to spare, she would hope that they really want her to do this, because she’s only doing it for their sake.

**〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭**

Akane smiles as she watches the strange figurehead of the equally strange crew drift away from afar.

“You’re spending too much time in that haunted house. You become more and more creepy everytime you walk out of it.”

“Is that a convoluted way of asking for divorce, darling?”

“Like you would ever find another man who wouldn’t freak out over your weird self.”

“Says the one who could faint over the title of a horror story before even listening to it.”

“... Whatever. Why are you stalking one-time customers?”

The dark-skinned woman’s smile becomes distinctly nostalgic, eyes dreamily lost in whatever images her mind is painting for her in the breezy air of this early evening.

“There was that girl… She reminded me a lot of a dream I had long ago…”

She chuckles then, hand coming to shade her eyes so that she can keep looking at the disappearing ship despite the sunlight.

It barely hides the glimmer in her eyes.

“Or maybe it wasn’t a dream, after all…”

The man besides her sigh.

“No matter how much time I spend with you, I still don’t understand a thing of what you’re talking about. Though it might for the be- Ow! Don’t be so violent, woman!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does Luffy saying that he likes skeletons qualifies as foreshadowing? Absolutely.
> 
> Is this last scene also foreshadowing something? Yes.
> 
> ... Vaguely. And you might not even remember it by the time the plot it's related to actually appears. But it was fun for me.
> 
> I hope the angst wasn't too much that you're going to leave this story, but well, it is one of the main genres.
> 
> That aside, I'll see you in the next chapter (and good luck to anyone who is also drowning in their midterms)! I hope you stay safe and happy!


End file.
